Absolute Mortality
by Pterygio
Summary: Everyone's a mortal. The idea of Greek gods doesn't even exist. Check out what a normal life would be like for Percy and his friends from Camp Half Blood. [Percabeth] [Caleo] [Jasper] [Charlena] [Solangelo] AU
1. 1- Percy

**A/N: So I decided I needed more Percabeth and Caleo in my life, but I had a difficult time finding my fill. So I decided to write one myself. Please review and tell me what you think of this first chapter. It'll get more interesting in the future.**

 **Also, there is a limit of four characters per story, but there are going to be more than just the four stated character POV's. We'll see Nico's POV as well and maybe a couple of others.**

* * *

 **Percy**

I stared straight into my father's eyes. They were bright green, the same as mine. He had shaggy black hair, also the same as mine. His face was chiseled. His eyes were surrounded by sun crinkles that showed he smiled a lot. He had a deep tan. He was just a couple of inches taller than me.

"Dad—" I started to say.

"No. I'm sorry, Percy, but there isn't any other way," my dad said.

"There has to be another school around here."

"There isn't," he said with a sad tone. "I hate this as much as you do—"

"Sure," I snapped.

"Percy, I'm on your side. I believe you, whether your old principal did or not."

I didn't say anything.

"Your mother and I loathe the idea of sending you off to boarding school. The idea of not being able to see you every day makes me nauseous."

I cracked a smile. I couldn't stay mad at him, especially when he spewed excellent points. "Well," I said. "I am pretty amazing."

My dad smiled too. He stepped forward and pulled me into a hug before I could object. Reluctantly, I returned it.

"What am I going to do without your constant sarcasm?" he said.

"I wouldn't call it constant," I said.

"So, you're going to go willingly then?" he asked. "I'm not going to have knock you unconscious and drop you there?"

"Oh, and _I'm_ the sarcastic one."

"CHB starts up in a month. We'll get you the required things."

"A month, huh? Plenty of time to get in my fill of sarcastic comments. And CHB?"

"I don't know what it stands for," he admitted.

"Central Hub for Boys?" I guessed.

"It's not an all boys school," he said.

"Really?" I said. He must have read my facial expression because he gave me a knowing look.

"You don't have to look too excited about that."

"I most certainly do." I'd been to an all boys school before. I was not a fan. It was right around when I'd hit puberty, and I couldn't really do anything about my sudden interest in romance without making a major lifestyle change.

I was excited when I'd learned that I'd be going back to an all gender school, but was disappointed because I loathed every girl there. There was always something about any girl I'd set my eyes on just to be quickly turned away. They were either narcissistic or shallow or just plain annoying. And the few girls I actually did like were already dating someone else.

You may think I'm shallow, but I'm not. Multiple of the girls that I actually liked weren't extremely attractive. And I never turned down a date with someone whose personality I hadn't yet formed an opinion, regardless of their looks. Unfortunately, I wasn't asked out often. But I was fine with that, as every date I've ever been on ended horribly. All three of them.

You may also be thinking, _Why even bother with girls? When the right one comes along, you'll know. Blah blah blah._ Hey, I'm a teenage boy and teenage boys look to fraternize with teenage girls.

"Percy?" my dad asked.

"What? Sorry," I said, having been lost in my thoughts.

"I was saying, you'll probably need your own phone, so you can contact us while you're away."

"Oh," I said surprised. "Er, yeah. I'd be fine with that."  
He gave a small chuckle. "We can figure out everything you'll need later. Right now we need to get you officially enrolled at CHB."

* * *

As much as I dreaded the idea of leaving home, I still didn't allow myself to sulk around for the rest of the Summer. I went about my business as if nothing were changing so that I enjoyed my last month with my parents.

In the last week of summer, my dad took me to get a phone. I'd assumed he'd just get me a basic flip phone or something meant specifically for calls and nothing else. But in the off chance he was being generous, I did my research on smartphones on my laptop.

When he did tell me that I could have a smartphone, I didn't hesitate to ask for the Samsung Galaxy S1. An Android was clearly the only choice.

I've got a laptop and now a smartphone. That must mean I'm spoiled, right? Well, not really. My parents don't buy me expensive things unless there's a valid reason to do so. They got me my laptop when I started middle school so I could finish online assignments given to me, and it was Christmas.

So maybe I'm a tiny bit spoiled, but trust me. I don't have a whole lot of expensive things.

How can my parents just afford to buy me things like that? Well I'm not going to say we're rich, but we are pretty set. My mom is a published author. She's written three books that have each sold decently well and she's working on another one.

I don't know a whole lot about literature and what constitutes a good book, but I can say I enjoyed reading them. They're officially the only three books I've ever read.

My father is a fisherman. But not your average fisherman. He has an entire crew on his boat and he occasionally goes out hunting for whales or other large animals, within legal boundaries of course. And shark bones sell for a pretty hefty amount of money.

He doesn't go on the water often. His license has pretty strict parameters due to there being quite a few endangered species out there. So he spent a good deal of time at the lake fishing. At least once a week we'd eat the fish he caught and they were absolutely delicious.

The day after I got my new phone, my mother took me to the store to get my school supplies. They were pretty basic things: pencils, paper, backpack, folders, etc. She also got me a suitcase so I'd be able to pack all of my clothes.

The day before I was supposed to leave for CHB I'd gotten packed and was lying on my bed fiddling with my phone. I'd customized it to my liking. I noticed how many tiny things you were able to decide with an Android. You couldn't do a quarter of the things you can do with an Android with an iPhone.

I was just installing a little hack that'd get me free apps and in app purchases when my father walked in.

"You ready for tomorrow?" he asked tentatively.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I said.

"That's good." He took a brief pause. "Hey, I had something I wanted to give you as a going away gift."

"Isn't this my going away gift?" I asked and held up my phone.

"No, that was just a gift. This," he said while reaching in his pocket, "is your going away gift." He drew out a large blue pocket knife and handed it to me.

I flipped it open and examined it. The entire thing is made of stainless steel, but the handle had been died a crisp ocean blue. Right at the base of the blade a little trident was engraved. Underneath it were the letters, 'POJ.'

"I've had that since I was around twelve," my dad said. "I never go anywhere without it. It's served me well over the years. Excellent for when I go fishing."

I was speechless. I'd never gotten a present this thoughtful before. Finally, I managed to say "These letters—"

"POJ. Yes, they're my initials. Poseidon Ogden Jackson."

"Your middle name is Ogden?" I said, trying not to laugh.

My father smiled. "Yes, it is. And in case you hadn't notice, POJ are your initials too. Perseus Otis Jackson. When your mother and I agreed to name you Percy, she insisted on keeping our initials the same."

"So that's why my middle name is a dog's name? Couldn't have thought of any other O's?" I smirked.

"Otis was your grandfather's middle name. Your mother insisted on a meaningful name that began with O. That was the only one that fit the bill."

I folded the knife and stuffed it in my pocket. I walked up to my father and gave him a hug.

"Thank you," I said.

"Since when did you get so sappy?" my dad asked.

I pulled away. "Since you got me a really meaningful gift. I love it."

He smiled.

* * *

After my mother nearly broke down into tears, I'd managed to say goodbye to her and me and my dad got into the car. CHB was located just on the outskirts of New York city. My dad assured me that it'd be hardly any different from public school as it was the only school in the general area. So anyone living near the school had no other alternatives.

I leaned my seat back and drifted off to sleep for the entirety of the two hour drive.

When I woke up, I was looking at a completely different sight than I'd expected. CHB consisted of two large brick buildings. One was eight stories high and closer to a square while the other was five stories high and very long. There was a very wide cement path leading in between them, in the center of which there was a fountain surrounded by benches. Students were all over the path, laughing and talking to one another.

The entrance to the school was a simple wooden archway with a sign that read 'CHB'. To the right of it was a really small building that I hadn't noticed before. It was almost like a very large toll both.

My dad pointed to the building and said, "Front office." I got my suitcase and backpack out of the trunk and then said my goodbyes. His car whirred to life and drove off and I headed to the front office.

As soon as I walked through the doors, the middle aged woman that sat behind the desk looked up.

"New student?" she asked. I read her nameplate. Her name was Nancy Clementine.

"Yes," I said. She immediately began typing away on her computer.

"What grade?"

"Junior," I answered. She typed some more.

"Full name?"

"Perseus Otis Jackson."

"Did you enroll online or in person?"

"Online."

"Alright, let's see here." She clicked a couple of buttons and the printer whirred to life. After a few seconds, she handed me a sheet of paper that was my class schedule.

She rifled around in her drawers and then drew out a small paperback book.

"This is your student manual," she said while handing me the book. "I'd suggest you look it over in your free time." She did some more typing and finally stood up to walk to the wall behind her where a bunch of keys were hung up on hooks. She looked through them for a couple of seconds and then drew one and handed it to me.

"The dormitories are in the taller building. You're on the fifth floor in room 218. I hope you enjoy your time at CHB."

I smiled at her. "Thanks." I was about to turn and leave when a question formed in my throat. "Er, what does CHB stand for?"

She knit her eyebrows and thought in silence for a couple of seconds. "I have no idea," she said at last.

"Wait, you're working here and you don't even know the full name of the school?"

"As far as I'm aware, only the founder knew what it stood for and he's been dead for half a century."

"Oh," I said. "Er, have a good day then."

"You too," she said as I left the building.

I stopped and looked around for a second until a boy walked up to me. He was tall with curly brown hair and a wispy beard. He had brown eyes and wore a friendly smile.

He held out his hand and I shook it. "I'm Grover Underwood," he said. "You're new here, right?"

"Percy Jackson," I said. "Yeah, I'm new."

"Would you like me to show you around?"

I looked at the two buildings and was about to say _I think I can figure it out myself_ , before I caught myself. "Sure," I said, not wanting to be rude.

We walked to the fountain which was perfectly in the center of the two buildings and then stopped. "You've likely already figured out that that's the dormitories," he pointed to the taller building, "and our classes are held in the educational building." He pointed to the long building.

"Alright, so tour over?" I said.

Grover laughed. "No, there's still more to the school than just that." We walked down the path so we were in front of a large canopy that had dozens of benches underneath. There were a couple of stalls on either end.

"This is where we eat lunch," Grover said. "And those stalls are where we get our food. That one," he pointed to the nearest one on the left side "is completely free, but it tastes pretty bad. The other five offer a better variety, but you'll have to pay." He pointed to the rest of the stalls longingly.

We turned to the right and walked toward an assortment of different sports fields.

"This is where you can play sports in your free time," Grover said. "We occasionally have tournaments where the winning team gets a small cash prize."

"Where do they get the prize money?" I asked.

"There are entrance fees," Grover explained. "It's usually around ten bucks to form a team and five bucks to attend a game. Most of the money goes to funding the school, but there's still a good bit left up for grabs."

We turned back around and passed the lunch area as we headed past the end of the educational building. There was a building about half as tall as the educational one and about a third its length.

"That's the gym," Grover said. "There's just a bunch of exercise equipment in there."

We walked a little farther down and I noticed a quarter-mile track at the end of the gym. There were a couple of bleachers on each side of it. "That's the track," Grover said needlessly. "If you have P.E., you'll go there."

We returned to the fountain. "That's pretty much it," Grover said.

"Wait, what about the auditorium?" I asked.

"Auditorium?" Grover repeated, confused.

"You know, where plays are held and assemblies take place, all that."

"Oh," Grover said. "We don't have drama here, and we have our assemblies at the football bleachers. Speaking of which, we're having one tomorrow at ten AM. Regular classes don't start until Tuesday."

"Okay. Well thanks for the tour," I said. "I guess I'll see you around."

I waved and headed to my dormitory.


	2. 2- Annabeth

**A/N: Just a little FYI, this is set in 2009, around the time after the Titan War ended in the canon universe. Just thought you should know so you have some perspective.**

 **Also, I'm not too happy with the title of this story, so if you have suggestions, please give them to me.**

* * *

I woke up was momentarily confused by my surroundings before remembering where I was. I'd arrived at CHB for my third year two days ago and hadn't gotten fully accustomed to sleeping in my dorm yet.

I threw the blanket off of myself and sat up on my bed for a second to soak in my dorm again. It was a decently sized room. It was perfectly symmetrical, except for the fact that my half was clean while the other was not.

Both beds were in the corners farthest from the door and closest to the window. The window was in the center of the room, as was the door. At the side of my bed was a larger than normal nightstand where I kept all my clothes. At the foot of my bed was a desk that was mostly empty except for a few daily things I needed like a hairbrush and perfume and the sorts. I wasn't too into my looks and all the "beauty" things some girls can be obsessed with, but I still preferred not to look like a slob.

Above my desk was a couple of hooks where I hung my jacket and backpack.

My roommate was not so organized. Her clothes were in a pile next to her bed. Her bag was tossed haphazardly on her desk, half hanging off. Her denim jacket was on top of it, one of the sleeves inside out.

Right next to the door was a small trash bin, the only thing we shared. Left unchecked, it'd get completely full and have trash spilling out, but I made sure to empty it out frequently.

On the back of the door hung a tall mirror.

I stood and slid open my nightstand drawers and threw together a quick outfit and began to change.

I was facing my bed with my back to my roommate's when I heard a whistle from behind me. I hastily finished pulling on a plain white t-shirt and turned around.

"You're up," I said.

"I noticed," Thalia said with a smirk. She was sitting up on her bed, wearing pajamas. She had choppy black hair and electric blue eyes. She was pretty, but intimidating when not smiling.

"Ready for the assembly?" I asked.

"Nope."

"You think it's goung to be as bad as last year?"

"I hope not."

"It's in thirty minutes, so you'd better get dressed." With that, I left the room.

I walked three doors down and knocked. It opened faster than I'd expected it to.

"Chase," Clarisse said before exiting into the hall, leaving the door open.

I entered to find my best friend already fully dressed.

Piper was wearing a tank top and a tight pair of eans. She had uneven brown hair with a braid on either side. The braid on the left had a feather in it.

She had deeply tanned skin and was rather beautiful.

Her eyes were an illusion. It was impossible to tell what color they were. Part of me suspected that she wore some sort of odd contacts, but I couldn't be sure.

"You're already ready?" I said.

"Why is that so surprising?" Piper said.

"Besides the fact that you're not a morning person?"

"I got good sleep last night."

"Alright. So you're ready for the assembly then?"

"Yeah," she said and stuffed her iPhone in her pocket.

Together, we began walking toward the staircase.

"So, you glad to be back?" Piper asked.

"A little," I admitted.

"Just a little? So are things getting better with you and your dad then?"

"Yeah, he's making the effort to get closer to me. I just. . ." I trailed off.

"Yeah," Piper said understandingly. "Things are still rocky between my mom and me."

I was about to scold her for being so distant with her mother, then I realized that'd be extremely hypocritical.

"So, did they put you in remedial geometry?" I asked.

"No, your tutoring helped me out. They pulled me into a week of summer school and I managed to make up the work."

"That's good. I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you make up the grade sooner."

Piper rolled her eyes. "Please. I'm surprised you were still able to maintain your own grades while spending so much time helping me."

"I think you're underestimating how how much free time I had."

"Well thanks again anyways."

We reached the football field and climbed into the bleachers. We sat down next to Thalia and her best friend, Phoebe.

I was about to bring up a new topic of conversation when I noticed a new student climbing the bleachers next to Grover Underwood and Nico Di Angelo.

I wasn't friends with Grover nor Nico but it wasn't too large a school, so I had no problem remembering most of the names and faces of the students in my year. This kid was definitely new though.

The kid had a stereotypical skateboarder look about him. I'd have been surprised had he not caused quite a bit of trouble in his past.

He was wearing a black zip up hoodie, currently unzipped, with a The Beach Boys t-shirt underneath. He also had on a pair of dark jeans.

He had disheveled black hair and sea green eyes. His face had a mediterranean complexion and, I'll admit, was pretty handsome. His mouth was constantly in a sarcastic smile.

He said something to Grover that made him laugh and Nico gave a forced smile and continued looking as depressed as he usually did.

They continued climbing and the new kid noticed me staring, so I looked away, hoping to have passed it off as just a quick glance.

Nico also noticed us and glared daggers at Thalia. A few years ago, Thalia and Phoebe were also close friends with a girl named Zoë Nightshade and Bianca Di Angelo, Nico's older sister. Thalia was driving the four of them when a drunk driver collided with them and Zoë and Bianca died. Nico still blamed Thalia for it.

Uncharacteristically though, Thalia felt too bad for Nico to return his resentment. I have a feeling that she may kind of blame herself too, but she never talks to me about things like that.

Grover was the last to notice and hastily urged Nico and the unnamed boy onto a bench five rows below us.

"That kid can really hold a grudge," I said.

Thalia just sighed.

Below us on the field, a few students and teachers were flooding onto the field. A two pairs of burlier students, one being Clarisse, carried large speakers to either sides of the field before joining their peers on the bleachers.

After just a couple of minutes, they were completely set up and the principal, Mr. Berns, held a mic.

"Girls and boys of CHB, who's ready to get this school year started?", he exclaimed. About a third of the audience cheered, most of them likely just do to politeness.

"Well I've got a few little start of the year announcements for you all, then our student council will have a few things to say as well.

"First things first, we need to welcome all our new students. Let's give the freshman and other incomers a big round of applause." There was a slightly more enthusiastic round of cheering this time.

"Now all of our school rules are listed in that student manual you each were given, but I know most of you won't read them. So I'm just going to list out the most important ones. No bullying, no harassment, no public displays of affection, no leaving the school premises on weekdays without a valid excuse and being signed out by the office. You may leave on weekends and other days there are no school, but only if your parents signed the form permitting this.

"So those are the basic rules that the faculty will be strictly holding you to abide by. Now, a few minor changes to the school. First, classes will be starting nine minutes sooner and ending nine minutes later. But you'll also be getting an extra ten minutes during your lunch period. You'll find a precise timetable on the inside cover of your student manual.

"Second, we've introduced a new zero-tolerance policy on late work. If you do not get permission from a teacher to turn in your work past its due date, you'll be deducted ten percent on that assignment for every day that it's late. So there should be no more of you hoarding unfinished assignments just to turn it all in at the end of the quarter.

"Lastly, we've had a minor change in staff. One of our science teachers, Mrs. Faris, has retired and we've hired Mr. Cabal in her stead." In the line of teachers, hispanic man of around fifty stepped forward and waved to the applause before taking a stepping back into line.

"Well, that's all I have for you today." Thalia sighed in relief. The principal normally does games or skits at the start of the year that are painful to sit through. "Give it up for your student body president, Justin Boyden." Applause roared as a scrawny boy with shoulder length brown hair took the microphone.

"What's up everyone?" he said. "Just a couple of things for you. This right here is last years student council," he pointed to the rest of the students that were on the field, "but some of them or all of them could be leaving as you vote on your class' three representatives. You can fill out forms in the front office to officially run and voting will begin in two weeks.

"As for homecoming, we'll be having a dance on the twenty-fifth followed by the first game of the basketball tournament. The dance fee will be ten dollars for one person and fifteen dollars for a couple. As for the basketball tournament, it'll be ten dollars per team member to form a team. The entrance fee to the game is to be decided.

"Anyways, I hope you all have a great year at CHB." He handed the microphone back to Mr. Berns.

"You are dismissed for the rest of the day," he said. "You are not allowed to leave campus today, be ready to start your classes tomorrow."

All of the students began standing up and filing down the bleachers.

Thalia and Phoebe lagged behind to distance themselves from Nico. Piper and I followed the rest of the students off of the field.

It wasn't lunch for another hour, but we sat down at our usual table in the lunch area anyways.

"So, what electives are you taking?" PIper asked.

"Engineering I and Spanish II," I said.

"Engineering?" Piper asked.

"It's the closest thing they have to architecture," I said. "What are you taking?"

"Culinary Arts and Spanish."

"Since when were you interested in cooking?"

"Since never, that's the point. All I ever eat at home are meals from our personal chef, so I never had the chance to learn. Here's my chance."

I nodded. Piper's father is Tristan McLean, a famous movie star so her life at home is pretty luxurious. But she likes to keep that part of her life as private as possible because she really doesn't enjoy attention too much.

"Let me see your schedule," Piper said. I pulled it out and handed it to her and she dug hers out of her pocket to compare. "Three classes together."

"Only three?" I said disappointingly while taking back my schedule.

Piper's eyes suddenly aimed over my shoulders and she stood. "I'll catch up with you at lunch, okay?"

"What—?" I started to say.

"Later," she said and hurried off.

I sat there stunned for a second before standing and deciding to head to the gym.


	3. 3- Percy

**A/N: So I'm not going to do these POV's in any specific order. As the events play out, I'll just choose the person whose POV fits best. So sorry if you're anxious to see your favorite character's POV.**

 **It's the weekend so I've got nothing going on. Should give me a lot of time to write.**

 **Also, I know. They keep getting shorter and shorter. Sorry about that. As we get deeper into the story, we should have longer chapters then.**

 **And again, if you have new title ideas, throw them at me.**

* * *

When I got up to room 218 on the fifth floor, I was surprised to find the door unlocked. I opened it and stepped inside to find two sets of living areas. I hadn't know that I'd be having a roommate.

"Who are you?" a cautious voice asked. I hadn't noticed a boy setting in a chair in front of the desk on the left side of the room He stood and faced me.

The boy had shaggy black hair as if he'd just gotten out of bed and pale skin. His face might have been handsome, but his dark brown eyes were cold and distant. He was clearly depressed, or just deeply sad at the moment. He was really skinny.

He was wearing a dark aviator jacket that was covering an extremely deep purple shirt with a skull design on it. His pants were black jeans with a chain laced through the belt loops instead of a belt. On his left middle finger was a silver skull ring that I suspected had a little more meaning than it just being a random fashion choice.

"I guess I'm your new roommate," I said to him. I extended my hand out to him. "Percy Jackson."

He shook my hand hesitantly. "Nico Di Angelo. The right side of the room is yours." With that, he sat down at his desk and began writing, no, _drawing_ something.

I wanted to get some more conversation out of him but decided now wasn't the time.

I examined my surroundings before setting my stuff on my bed and sorting through it.

The nightstand next to my bed was pretty big so I was able to fit all my pants and shirts in the bottom drawer and all underwear and socks in the top. I took out my hoodie and hung it on a hook above my desk then hung my backpack right next to it.

My laptop was at the bottom of the suitcase. I took it out and set it on my desk and ran the cord into the wall.

Finally, I plugged in my phone charger to the outlet near my nightstand and plugged my phone in.

I opened my laptop and signed in. I was about to go to YouTube when I remembered that I wasn't alone. I'd have to go off campus and buy a pair of headphones this weekend.

I closed my laptop and debated over what I wanted to do today. I eventually decided that I would go down to the gym and work out a little bit, but wasn't sure if that was allowed so I fingered through my student manual.

I didn't find any rules strictly prohibiting it, but I thought I'd ask Nico just to be sure.

"Er, Nico?" I said tentatively.

He flinched ever so slightly. Clearly he wasn't used to hearing his name spoken too often.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Are there any restrictions on where we're allowed to go during the day?"

"I don't think so, as long as it's within campus."

"So I won't be yelled at for going to the gym?"

"You shouldn't. There's always at least a couple kids over there."

"Cool, thanks. Seeya later, man." I grabbed my phone off of my nightstand left the room.

It was about a four minute walk to get to the gym from mine and Nico's dorm.

I walked to the front door of the building and pulled it open. Sure enough, the lights were on and there were a couple other kids on some of the exercise machines, and quite a few just standing around talking.

I looked at all the machines there and only knew what about half of them did. I decided I'd try out the equipment another day and just settled for finding a clear stretch of floor and alternating between fifty pushups and fifty situps.

After about an hour of that, I left the gym and ran maybe ten laps around the track, I didn't keep count.

I wanted to take a shower after I was done, but I didn't have a towel or soap with me. I figured body spray would get me through the rest of the day then I can shower right before I went to bed.

When I got back to my dorm, Nico wasn't there. I looked at his desk to see a completed drawing. It was a very well drawn image of a pretty girl whose head rested on her hand. I noticed that she had on the same silver skull ring Nico wears. She had a floppy hat on but it was angled up so her face was clearly visible.

The more I looked at it, the more I realized that she looked very similar to Nico. I assumed this must be his sister.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and lied down on my bed.

A couple minutes later, Nico came back and sat down at his desk again.

Before I could stop myself, I blurted out, "You're a really good artist."

He looked over at me. His eyes looked angry for a split second before replaced by discomfort. Perhaps he wasn't used to getting compliments. "Thanks," is all he said.

"Is that your sister?" I asked.

He stayed silent for a while before finally saying, "Yes. Her name's Bianca. She— she died three years ago."

I could hear the pain in his voice and suddenly several things became a lot clearer to me. His dark and distant attitude was a defense mechanism. It shielded him from the pain he burried deep inside.

"I'm sorry," I said.  
"It's fine." It clearly wasn't fine. "It was three years ago." The way he talked about her, it may as well have been yesterday.

I knew him hiding in his shell like this wasn't healthy, but we'd only just met. I'd be overstepping my bounds to press further on the subject.

"So what else do like to draw?" I asked. He looked grateful for the change of subject.

"Swords and other weapons as well as skulls and zombies, mainly." He slid open his drawer and drew out a stack of papers and handed them to me.

The top paper had a human skull drawn on it. It looked as if he were going for the photo-realistic effect and came pretty close.

I slipped that one to the bottom of the stack and examined the nest one. It was a female zombie that had its head on backwards and blood dripping from the outstretched fingertips.

I flipped through them all, looking at medieval swords, daggers and some very creative skull and zombie designs. Every once in awhile there'd be another picture of Bianca. Some had color, others didn't.

The further I went through the pile though, the more the quality seemed to decrease. I assumed this stack was everything he'd drawn since he first took up art.

At one point there was a space gun, at which Nico promptly said, "I was trying out the sci-fi style. It isn't for me."

I finally got back to the photo-realistic skull and handed Nico back the stack.

"You're amazing," I said. Nico's face was slightly less pale for a second. This must have been the closest thing to blushing that he could do.

"Well, I had a lot of practice," he said. There was an awkward silence for a couple seconds.

Having had been rewarded for opening up to me about his art, he tried to continue the conversation.

"So, what do you like to do?"

"I workout when I'm stressed. I also had a skateboard back at home."

"You like to skateboard?"  
"I did. My mom got it for me when I was ten. I even gave it a name, Riptide, because of the water designs on the bottom of it. Eventually it was too small for me. I ended up breaking it."

"You never got another one?"

"Nope. I asked for one right after it broke, but they forgot to carry through with it and I just simply didn't bother asking again."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. I don't like asking for things. It makes me feel awkward, like I'm being greedy. I didn't want to seem to needy to ask for it a second time."

"I get it. My parents don't have too much money, either."

"I didn't say we were poor," I said before I could stop myself. "Never mind," I added hurriedly. "Go on."

"Anyway," he said while giving me a suspicious look. "Every time I ask for something I have to mentally prepare myself, because I think I'm being selfish." He reached on his desk and picked up a white paper stump. "It took me an entire day to build up the courage to ask for this."

"How much was it?"

He laughed. It was a genuine outburst of pure mirth, something that appeared foreign on him. "Just a couple of bucks. Stupid, right?"

I chuckled along with him.

Given time, I think we can become friends.

* * *

The next day, Nico and I headed down to the football field together.

As we exited the dorm building, Grover caught up to us.

"Hey, Percy, Nico," he said. "Mind if I tag along?"

"Hi Grover," Nico said. It appeared they were on friendly terms.

"What's up, man?" I said.

The three of us talked all the way up the bleachers.

When we were half way up, I noticed four girls sitting next to each other. The one on the end was blond with stormy grey eyes. She was incredibly pretty. So were the other three, but she was the most beautiful in my opinion.

I noticed she was looking at me. Our eyes met for a split second before she noticed I caught her and she looked away.

About five seats below them, Grover hurriedly ushered me and Nico onto an empty bench.

I looked at Nico who now had a scowl om his face. I glanced at Grover who shook his head and mouthed the word, _later_.

After the assembly was over, Nico, Grover, and I hung out near the track. Grover and Nico weren't too into running so we just walked.

After about half an hour of talking and joking around, Nico split off and it was just Grover and I.

"What was up with Nico at the assembly?" I asked.

"You saw that girl with the choppy black hair and blue eyes?" Grover said.

I racked my brain. I hadn't paid too much attention to the other three, but I did recall the girl he was talking about.

"Yeah," I said.

"Her name's Thalia Grace. She was friends with Nico's sister."

"Bianca."

"That's her. She died in a car wreck three years back because of a drunk driver in another car. Thalia was the one driving their car, so Nico blames her."

"That's stupid, it wasn't her fault."

"Yeah, but try not to say that to him."

"We can't get the two to talk?"

"We've tried, Annabeth and I. Nico just ends up yelling at her."

"Who's Annabeth?"

"The blond."

"You two are friends?"

"Yeah, kind of. We're secondary friends, I guess you'd call it."

"Ah. What about Thalia and the other two?"

"First name basis."

We stood in silence for a couple seconds.

"I want to run," I said at last. "You gonna join?"

Grover contemplated for a second. "Sure."

I took off at full speed around the track, Grover surprisingly close behind. After sprinting a full lap, we slowed to a walk.

"I thought you weren't into running," I said to Grover.

"I said I didn't like to. Never said I wasn't good."

We walked half a lap. "Ready for another go?"


	4. 4- Piper

While Annabeth and I were talking about our classes for the school year, I spotted a tall blond boy next to a shorter, curly brown-haired boy over her shoulder.

I stood up, possibly a little too fast. "I'll catch up with you at lunch, okay?" I said to her.

"What—?" Annabeth started to say.

"Later," I interrupted and hurried toward Jason and Leo.

They spotted me.

"Hey, beauty queen," Leo said.

I gave him a quick, sibling-like hug. "Can you stop call me that?" I said

"What's up, Pipes?" Jason said. I hugged him too, but it was less platonic.

"What's _up_ is that I've been at school for two days already and this the first time I'm seeing you."

"I'm sorry," Jason said. "I only just got here late last night. I assumed you'd have been in bed already and I didn't want to disturb you."

"You mean you didn't want to risk angering Clarisse," Leo said.

"That too," Jason said. I laughed. "So is she still your roommate? For future reference."

"Yep," I said. "She still goes here. Try not to be too disappointed. She's been a lot more tolerable since she started dating Chris Rodriguez."

"I'd still rather avoid any late night encounters with her," said Leo.

"Anyway, when did _you_ get here, Leo?" I asked.

"Yesterday morning. I looked around for you for a little bit, but had no luck. So I just tinkered in our dorm for the entire day."

"As always. Invent anything amazing?"

"As always," he said proudly. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a tiny metal cube.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I call it the LeoCube."  
"Creative name."

"Why thank you. I had the Stolls in mind while making it. I bet I can get at least a hundred bucks off them for it."

"What's it do?"

"Watch." He pushed a very hidden button and a lockpick popped out the top. He pushed the button again and it retracted to reveal a different lockpick. He cycled through several lockpicks, all presumably with a specific purpose in mind.  
"So it's basically a lockpick multitool," Jason said.

"Yep. And there's a button on the other side you can push for it to retract whatever lockpick you're on without having it popping up the next. That way you don't have to cycle through them all to make it inconspicuous again."

"Aren't you afraid they'll use it on you? Steal back the hundred dollars they paid you?" I said.

"Don't worry. I already switched out mine and Jason's lock for a combination one."

"And the school's okay with that?"  
"The faculty never go in the dorm building, except the janitors. I don't see why they'd care."

"Anyway, what classes are you taking?" Jason asked.

"Spanish and Culinary Arts," I said.

"Ah," Leo said. "Por fin vas a ver los beneficios del mejor lenguaje del mundo."

"I just needed a foreign language credit," I said. "What about you two?"

"Engineering and Computer Science," Leo said.

"Business Management II and Computer Science," Jason said.

I gave him a questioning look.

"I couldn't decide what to do about my second elective, so I just did what Leo did."  
"So your dad's still wanting you to go into his business then?" I said.

"Yeah, and to be honest, I'm warming up to the idea."

"Really?" I said, surprised.

"Well I've had experience with it now, and I actually like it."

"Hmm."

"What?" Jason said defensively.

"Man, you were hella pissed at your dad for forcing you to take Business Management I. Now all of a sudden you're telling us you actually _want_ to go into his business?"

"I had a change of heart, what's so strange about that?"

"Did you seriously just say 'hella'?" I said to Leo.

"Words are words, Beauty Queen," Leo said. "If they exist, I'll speak them."

"Oh, there's Reyna," Jason said suddenly. A pretty girl with glossy black hair worn in a single braid and piercing black eyes was walking toward us. "I'll see you two later."

Jason walked over to her and kissed her. She then grabbed his hand and the two walked off.

Sadness suddenly enveloped me.

Leo looked at me with a knowing, sympathetic look.

"What?" I said, trying to sound casual.

"You've got to say something to him," Leo said.

"About what?" I said, putting on a fake confused expression.

"Drop the act. You and I both know you like Jason."

"So what if I do?" I said. "He's dating Reyna."

"He's got to know. He has no idea right now."  
"What would me telling him accomplish? Is he just going to randomly break up with the girl he's been dating for almost all of last year to be with me?"

"But—"

"Just drop it," I said flatly.

I checked the time and headed back to my dorm.

* * *

 **A/N: Extremely short chapter today, I know. I just wanted to get these characters introduced. I'm going to focus primarily on Percabeth here in the beginning.**

 **Also, I'm working on a little side project, so if you want Leo, look out for it. The first chapter should be up later today. I call it a side project because I'm going to be giving Absolute Mortality priority.**

 **I might even be able to fit in another Absolute Mortality chapter today, but I'm not going to rush. In all likelihood, it'll be up tomorrow.**

 **And again, I'm not entirely happy with this story's title, so if you have a better one, review and tell me so I can change it.**


	5. 5- Annabeth

An annoying, loud buzzing followed by a groan from across the room woke me up the next morning. I sat up groggily to see Thalia doing the same. I got up and opened my drawer to begin sifting through my clothes while Thalia turned off the alarm clock on her nightstand.

I began to get dressed and in ten minutes, I was wearing black pants, a dark grey t-shirt, and my usual flats.

I opened the window and felt the temperature outside, then decided to pull my jacket off the wall and put it on. It was a CHB letterman jacket that I got for joining the track team last year. It was an orange and purple design, our school colors, a centaur with an eagle flying right above him on the right breast, our school mascot, and "Track '09" on the left breast. On the back were the letters, "CHB" and right underneath it was the word, "Chase," my last name.

I picked up my phone, a boring flip phone, and stuffed it in my pocket before grabbing my backpack and slinging it over my shoulder.

I pulled out my schedule and looked at my first class. "Algebra 2 with Dodds."

Thalia looked over at me. She was wearing here usual dark, torn jeans, Green Day t-shirt, and black leather jacket. "Me too," she said.

"Cool," I said. "Let's go."

At the end of the hall, we stopped in the bathroom to use the facilities then continued down the staircase and stepped out into the cold, morning air. Kids were already swarming from the dorm building to the educational building. We joined the hoard and walked through the double glass doors.

Mrs. Dodds's room was the first door to the right of the entrance. Thalia and I entered and sat together at the back of the room. There were three other kids already seated around the room. One of those three was the new black haired boy with green eyes that befriended Nico di Angelo and Grover Underwood.

I waited to see if Piper was going to come in too. I never compared our two schedules myself, so only Piper knew exactly what classes we had together.

In less than five minutes, the entire classroom filled up and there was no Piper. But there was Phoebe who promptly sat right next to Thalia.

As soon as the bell rang, the scrawny old lady that was Mrs. Dodds stood from her desk and walked to the front of the room. "Alright, welcome to another year at CHB. I'll be teaching your second tier of algebra. But first thing's first: Everyone stand up so I can get you in your proper seats." The whole class groaned and stood.

She picked up a binder off of her desk and flipped the cover open and began naming students and pointing to desks, simultaneously taking roll call. In two minutes, everyone was seated where she'd assigned. I was sitting to the left of the green eyed boy whose name I still didn't know.

"Alright," Mrs. Dodds said. "Let's get started. All I have for you today is a pretest. It will not count against you, but take your time. Your results will determine what of this class's curriculum may or may not need to be taught. Someone help me pass out papers." When no one volunteered, she dropped the papers on one of the front row student's desk, who reluctantly stood and started handing them out.

I set to work as soon as I got mine. I did pretty well on the first little bit as it was just stuff that we'd gone over last year and the year before, but I didn't know anything on the rest of the test.

I was one of the first ones to finish. I stood and handed it to Dodds and then headed straight back to me seat. I opened my bag and pulled out a book. It was about a girl struggling with her mental sanity. It's very reminiscent of The Yellow Wallpaper, but it was a full length novel and set in the present.

I flipped it open to about halfway through, where my bookmark was, and started to read.

Thirty minutes into class, Dodds looked up from her desk. "Is everyone done?" she asked.

When no one objected, she said, "You're free to do whatever you wish for the rest of the period. Just no yelling."

I was about to continue reading my book when a voice to the right of me said, "Hey."

I looked up cautiously. "Hi," I said.

"I'm Percy."

"Annabeth."

"Chase?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"It's on your jacket," he said, smiling.

"Right," I said, trying not to blush at my own stupidity.

"What are you reading?" he asked.

I showed him the cover and his face showed recognition.

"You've read it?" I said.

"Yeah. I'm Percy Jackson." He pointed to the author's name, Sally Jackson.

Then it hit me. "Is she—?"

"My mom, yeah."

"Oh. So do you get a lot of attention because of it?"

He snorted. "You kidding? Her books are good sellers, but you're about the first teenager I've seen read _any_ book of her own free will. Plus, they're aimed at more mature audiences."

"Well I guess that's a good thing then. I wouldn't want that attention. My best friend's dad—" I stopped myself. Piper would never have forgiven me had I told some random guy her dad was Tristan McLean, the famous movie star.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Never mind. So do you read a lot of other books?"

"Not really. I only read her first book because she's my mom, but it turned out I actually enjoyed it, so I read the other two out of pure interest. But I can't really keep interest when I try reading other books."

"Oh. So what do you like to do?"

"I like to swim, but I hardly ever get the chance to. Does this school have a swim team?"

I shook my head. "No, sorry."

"That's too bad. None of the schools I've gone to have had one."

"How many schools have you been to?"

"Just about every one in Albany," he said sheepishly.

"Were you expelled from all of them?"

"Yep. Bad luck kind of follows me around."

"Well hopefully it didn't follow you into New York," I said with a smile.

"We'll see." The bell rang. He smiled at me. "See you around, Annabeth." He left the room.

I stuffed my book in my bag and slung it over my shoulder. Thalia gave me a look I couldn't identify right before she too went to her next class.

I went to the end of the hallway where the staircase was. After climbing two floors, I stepped off and entered a room several doors down.

I saw Piper and sat in the desk next to her. I looked around. Grover was in here, but Percy and Nico weren't.

I was going to say something to her, but then the bell rang signaling the start of class. The teacher was a man of about forty, possibly less. He looked pretty good for his age. I assumed he was Mr. Blofis as that's what my schedule said.

"Good morning class," he said. "None of you will have had me before because I'm strictly an English 12 teacher. I am Mr. Blofis. First, let's call roll."

The rest of the day went pretty smooth. After that class, I had engineering, but I knew no one in that class. And for fourth period, I had P.E. Percy and Grover were in that class too, but Thalia and Piper weren't.

"Alright, cupcakes!" Coach Hedge said at the start of P.E. "I'm going to teach you the fine art of physical education. Sadly, we're not getting into any exercising today, so I'm going to lecture you on what's expected of you. I'll be assigning each of you a locker in your gender specific locker room. After school, I expect you to go to your lockers and put some proper running shoes in it as well as clothes suitable for working out. Shorts, tights, t-shirts, the like are all acceptable. Nothing baggy. If you're dressed casually, I will mark you down points, and I'll punish the entire class with an even more vigorous activity. The first thing you do when you get to this class is dress down. You'll have five minutes after the second bell rings and you'll be out on the track's starting line. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes," several of the students said.

"Now. Once you're all dressed down and waiting on the starting line, I'll blow my whistle and you will run _one_ lap, no more. Then you have a two minute break before we warm up. That's when we start whatever activity I have planned for you. Now. Everyone make a neat line in front of me so that I can give your locker number, lock, and combination. Once I give you the lock, make sure the combination works. Then go find your locker number and put the lock on it. Then you're free to do whatever you wish for the rest of the period." We did as we were instructed and then Percy and Grover caught up with me and the three of us talked for the majority of the class.

After P.E. was over, we had lunch. After that I had Chemistry, which Piper was also in. Then I had Spanish II with no one I knew. Finally, I had History. Piper, Percy, and Nico were in that class too. Percy smiled at me from across the room but didn't come over to chat.

"You know him?" Piper said.

"We talked in first period and fourth," I said. "His name's Percy."

"Well," she said, giving me a sly smile, "Percy's really cute."

"I guess."

"You guess? Come on, he's clearly already one of the hottest guys in school."

"If you like the way he looks so much, then ask him out," I said.

"Annabeth, you know I don't ask out guys just based on their looks."

"Then why bother bringing up?"

"I was just pointing it out. Plus you clearly like him."

"I don't _like_ him. We've talked like two times."

"Alright," she put her hands up in surrender. "That's fine."

"While we're on the subject, when are _you_ going to ask out Thalia's brother?"

"Jason?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Never."

"Why?"

"I don't know if you noticed, but he has a girlfriend."

"They'll break up any day now."

"What do you mean?"

"Haven't you seen them together? It's awkward, and they really don't have that much in common. It won't last."

"Well, whatever. I don't care if they do break up."

"That's a lie."

"Just drop it, okay?"

Class ended and then we parted ways. I went to the track to jog a couple of laps to find Percy already there. He was about to start jogging until he noticed me.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey. Mind if I join you?" I asked. He nodded his head.

* * *

 **A/N: Still looking for a name change on this story. Please review and give me suggestions.**

 **Also, I released the first chapter of the story I mentioned in my last author's note. Click on my name and check it out if you're a fan of Caleo. But again, this story will be taking priority. I won't be writing on that unless I've put up a chapter here.**


	6. 6- Percy

After the first day of school was finished, I'd headed to the track to get a few laps in. I was surprised to find out that my new grey-eyed friend had the same idea. It shouldn't have, seeing as her letterman jacket literally said "track" on it.

"Mind if I join?" she asked me. I nodded in response.

We lined up together at the starting line and both took off simultaneously.

Annabeth was fast. _Really_ fast. She passed me several times only for me to pass her again. It kept on seesawing between me in first place and Annabeth in first place.

Finally, the finish line was in front of us and Annabeth passed me again. I put on a burst of speed in an attempt to pass her, but it failed. She passed the finish line ahead of me and stopped so abruptly that she tripped and fell. I was just close enough behind her that I tripped as well, and then we were on top of each other.

Our faces were inches apart and we were staring straight into each other's eyes. I realized what was happening pretty quickly and got off of her, but that one second was enough to send butterflies through my stomach. I definitely like this girl.

I stood and offered her my hand, which she took. I made sure to let it go pretty quickly.

"Not bad, Chase," I said to her, trying to act nonchalant.

"You're not so bad yourself, Jackson," Annabeth said. She smiled.

"Want to run another?" I asked.

"Not after that fall."

"It wasn't that bad."

"Not for you. You used me as a cushion."

"Not intentionally." The hormonal side of me wanted to say, _how about we do it again and make intentional?_ I suppressed that thought. I actually liked this girl. We're becoming friends and I don't want to push her away.

"I think it was a little intentional," Annabeth said with a smirk.

"How about we use the term, 'convenient'?" I said, returning her playful smile.

She laughed. Then she touched her side and made a sliver of a wince, almost unnoticeable.

"I'll see you later, Percy," she said and began walking back to the dorms.

"Seeya," I said. "And sorry for falling on you."

I ran another lap then walked back to my dorm room. I had no extra pair of shoes, but the ones I wore were perfectly good for running. I grabbed a pair of shorts and a tank top as well as a spare stick of deodorant and body spray then made my way back to the gym. I opened my newly assigned locker and stuffed them in and closed it again.

I walked out into the gym to find it nearly empty, except for a few people who were actually working out. I decided to give the bench press a go.

Thirty minutes later, my arms were properly sore and I was pretty sweaty. I went into the locker room and applied a layer of deodorant and a spritz of body spray and went back to mine and Nico's dorm.

Nico was wide awake when I got back and was drawing. I looked at his paper to see a roughly drawn outline of a sword. He looked about ready to start adding detail.

I sat at my desk and began playing a game I'd downloaded on my phone.

* * *

I found myself not hating math for once. Annabeth sitting right next to me made it a lot easier to not feel bored.

Mrs. Dodds wasn't as bad as I thought she'd be either. She was strict on noise while she was talking, but as long as we were working, she didn't care.

For the first half of class, she had us taking notes while lecturing us. Then she gave us an assignment about what we just learned to work on until the end of the period.

Annabeth and I worked together on it She didn't have a fraction of the "dumb blond" stereotype in her. Everything came so easily to her.

I had a difficult time understanding a lot of the stuff, but she explained it to me pretty well.

I was actually saddened when class ended.

I enjoyed my second period, Oceanography, and third period, English, was okay. But I still found myself looking forward to fourth period.

I got to the gym and headed straight to the boys' locker room. I got dressed and then waited on the track for class to start.

Annabeth walked out wearing a pair of short shorts, a sports bra, and tennis shoes. Her hair was tied into a ponytail.

When she spotted me, she gave a smile and I returned it, forcing myself to look at her face instead of her body.

Goddamn. She's smart, beautiful and now sexy too?

No. I didn't want to think about her like that, no matter how true it was. I liked her. It felt wrong to think of her as sexy, I don't know why.

She stopped walking and stood right next to me. Coach Hedge trotted onto the field and blew his whistle.

The entire class took off around the track. Me, Grover, and Annabeth were at the front with a couple other kids.

After the final person finished the lap, Coach Hedge gave us a two minute break.

After that, he coordinated stretching. That man was far more flexible than I'd expected.

About five minutes of stretching and then he lined us up on the ground to do coordinated pushups.

"One!" he yelled. We all did a pushup and said, "one!" at the same time.

"Two!" he yelled. Same routine.

We'd done fifty before he told us to flip over onto our backs and we did synchronized situps.

"One!" he yelled. It was the same gist, but we stopped at a hundred instead.

"Okay, cupcakes!" Coach Hedge said. "I have a timer here," he reached in his shirt and pulled up the cord hanging around his neck. It had a small yellow box attached to it. "We're going to run the mile. That's four laps. I don't want any of you cheating and just doing three. If I catch you saying you're done when you clearly aren't, I _will_ call you out on it and you'll be pretty damn embarrassed.

"Now, line up on the line. I'll start my timer and blow my whistle, then you take off. I'll shout your times when you come across the line. When you're all finished, come tell me your time so I can get it written down." He blew his whistle.

After gym, Nico, Grover, and I found an empty table in the dining pavilion and ate our lunch.

Sometime near the middle of lunch at a nearby table, Annabeth and her friend got into an argument. She took her lunch and stormed to our table to sit down.

A curly-haired latino boy who was also sitting at that table seemed to have been a part of the argument. He too came over and sat by us.

"What was that about?" Grover asked.

"Jason broke up with Reyna," the latino boy said.

"Who?" I asked.

The curly-haired boy looked at me questioningly. "Jason is Annabeth's roommate's brother. Piper, Annabeth's best friend, likes him but won't admit it."  
"Oh," I said.

"I'm guessing you're Percy then?" he said.

"Yeah."

He gave an odd sideways glance to Annabeth, whose cheeks tinged ever so slightly pink and her eyes stared at her food.

"Leo Valdez," he said, extending his hand, which I shook.

"Percy Jackson," I said.

We sat there in silence for a couple of seconds.

"So," I said. "Jason was dating this Reyna, now he's not. So you two were trying to get her to ask him out? I don't think it's right for you to meddle like that."

"We weren't _meddling_ ," Annabeth said exasperatedly. "We weren't telling her to ask him out, not right away at least. We just wanted her to admit her feelings."

"I think if she wanted to talk about them, she would have. Prying is kind of rude," I said flatly. Nico looked at me strangely. I couldn't determine his expression.

"Alright, look, Mr. Romance Expert—" Leo started.

"Leo," Annabeth interrupted. "Percy's right."

Leo looked absolutely baffled. " _What?_ You, Annabeth Chase, are admitting you're wrong?"

"What?" Annabeth said defensively. "I can be wrong sometimes."

"That's new."

"Look," said Annabeth. "We all want Jasper to happen—"

" _Jasper?_ " I said.

"I came up with it," Leo said proudly. "Jason plus Piper equals Jasper."

"Creative," I said sarcastically.

"—and making Piper made at us isn't going to achieve anything," Annabeth continued.

"So you're saying we need to apologize?" said Leo.

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch and everyone flooded off to their fifth periods.

When seventh period came around, I sat in the same seat I sat in yesterday next to Nico.

Annabeth entered the room and sat next to me. Not long after, Piper entered and sat next to Annabeth. Evidently they'd already made amends.

Annabeth introduced me and Piper and the four of us chatted easily.

The rest of the week glided just as smoothly. Annabeth, Piper, and Leo continued eating lunch every day with Grover, Nico, and I. Leo invited Jason over and he too became a part of our usual group.

Nico appeared uncomfortable being part of such a large social group, but didn't object. He was actually a frequent part of the conversations too, for someone who was so dark and distant.

The odd thing is though that he acts far more distant around me. I couldn't figure it out. He actively tried to spend as little time in a one-on-one conversation with me. It was as if he were hiding something.

I didn't want to mention anything to him though. The poor kid always seemed so depressed. I didn't want to put him in any awkward situations.

* * *

Friday morning, after Dodds finished lecturing and passed out our assignments, Annabeth and I began to talk. We'd already become pretty good friends for just a week.

"Hey, do you want to do something this weekend?" I asked her.

"Why, do you guys have plans?" she said.

"No, I mean just you and me."

She seemed surprised by this. "Oh. Are you asking—?"

"Strictly platonic," I hurried out.

"Oh," she said. Was that disappointment on her face? "Yeah, that'd be fun."

"Cool," I said with a smile.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, so apparently you're all happy with the current story title. So we'll be sticking with that for now. But still, if any of you have any amazing title change ideas, feel free to suggest them.**

 **Oh, and just a head's up: There won't be a chapter out tomorrow. Chapter 7 should be ready the day after tomorrow. But I am hoping to get in Chapter 3 of Oath Kept, Now Eternal Breath, so look out for that.**

 **And review to tell me what you think of the story at this point. I'm open to criticism.**


	7. 7- Annabeth

I woke up Saturday morning and got dressed.

I sorted through my clothes trying to find a fitting outfit for my "strictly platonic" hangout with Percy.

 _You're far overthinking this,_ I scolded myself. I grabbed a pair of skinny jeans and a plain blue t-shirt and put them on.

I went to my desk and pulled open the drawer containing a hand mirror. I picked up my brush and smoothed out my hair. I didn't tie out into a ponytail though.

I opened the window to feel the temperature and decided I didn't need my jacket.

I looked at Thalia's empty bed before leaving the room.

I made my way to the end of the hall and went down one flight of stairs to where the floor for junior boys was.

I'd started to look for Percy and Nico's room when a door opened and Percy emerged. He noticed me and smiled.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," I said awkwardly. "Ready to go?"

"Yep." He walked up to me and then we descended down the staircase together.

"So," I said. "What do you have planned?"

"Planned?" he said.

"You're telling me you invited me to hangout with you, and you haven't even planned out what we're going to do?"

"No," he said. "Of course I have a plan."

I raised an eyebrow.

"More like a general idea," he corrected.

We exited the dorm building and stepped outside.

"Well let's see your 'general idea' then," I said.

We walked through the arch that marked the entrance of the school and stepped into the parking lot.

"Do you have a car?" I asked.

"No," he said. "But I did call a cab."

Sure enough, when we got to the back of the parking lot there was a bright yellow car waiting for us. Percy opened the backdoor for me and I stepped in. I scooted to the middle and he stepped in after me.

"Percy Jackson?" the cab driver asked from the front seat.

"That's me," said Percy.

"Where to?"

"Uh," said Percy. "Take us to a river or beach. Somewhere swimmable."

"Alright. I know a good place. Maybe ten minutes from here."

"Perfect," said Percy.

"Buckle up," said the cabbie who then closed the window separating the passengers and the driver. The car kicked into ignition and they began to move.

"You intend on swimming?" I said to Percy.

"Not really," he said. "I'm not dressed for it. I just said that so we wouldn't end up anywhere polluted."

"Oh. So why do you want to go near water then?"

"It relaxes me. It's a good place to have a conversation," he said with a shrug.

"So," I said. "You never fully explained how you ended up at CHB."

"Ah. The bad luck I mentioned started during middle school. A couple of 'friends' of mine vandalized a school mural. When a teacher came, they all ran for it. I figured it'd be too suspicious if I ran too, so I stayed and told the truth. But apparently that wasn't good enough and I was expelled."  
"That's ridiculous," I said. "They couldn't have expelled you without evidence."

He shrugged. "Guess they could. The other two middle schools I went to were pretty much the same story. I was blamed for things I didn't do."

"How can that happen to you so many times though?"

"It's the people I chose to be around." He thought for a second. "You guys aren't the type to do something like that to me, are you?" he asked with a sarcastic smile.

"Oh, we've already got it all planned out," I said with a smirk. "We're going to trash the fountain and leave you at the wreckage."

We laughed together. We stopped when the window separating driver and passenger opened.

"This is your stop," the cabbie said. Percy paid and then we got out.

We began to walk to the edge of a river.

"So what about high school?" I said.

"I went to three different schools before every school in the district stopped accepting me," he said.

"What happened to get you expelled from those three schools?"

"Midway through freshman year I got into a disagreement with my teacher. That one wasn't so much bad luck but me being overly stubborn."

"You were expelled for one disagreement?"

"No. There were multiple. I was given detention the first time but I was adamant. Came back to class, continued the argument. After enough times, they expelled me."

"What was the argument about?"

He laughed. "I don't even remember. I think it had something to do with the way she taught her class.

"Anyway, I went to a new school and finished the year there. The next year I stood up for a kid that was being bullied. The principal expelled the bully and me."

"Seriously?"

"I did quite a number on him," he said sheepishly. "And he did quite a number on his victim."

"And the third school?"

"Same story. But there were no witnesses to testify that I _hadn't_ ruthlessly attacked an innocent football player."

"What about the victim?"  
"I was the intended victim, but I know how to fight.

Percy walked up to the edge of the river. He might have intended to stop but he tripped and fell in face first.

I jogged up to the river just as his head popped up.

"Little bit clumsy there?" I said with a laugh.

"I meant to do that," he said.

I was going to help him up, but this was the cliché moment in the movie where he pulls me in too.

He stood and stepped out of the water.

"You have seaweed in your hair," I said.

He reached up and pulled a clump of green off his head.

"This is moss," he said and tossed it back into the river.

"Whatever, Seaweed Brain," I said.

"Seaweed Brain? It's _moss_. And my brain isn't in my hair, Wise Girl."

He pulled off his shirt and wrung it out. _Okay,_ I thought to myself. _Piper was right. He_ is _hot._

"Are you staring at me?" Percy said, a smile poking at the corners of his mouth.

"No," I said a little too quickly. "I mean, I was just looking at your tattoo." He had a trident tattooed on his left bicep.

He turned so that I could see it better. After a couple of seconds he put his shirt back on.

"Let's get something to eat then I can tell you about it," he said. "Now turn around so I can wring out my pants."

I obliged. When he was finished, his clothes still looked wet but they were no longer dripping.

"So," he said. "Know any good food places?"

"Yeah. There's a nice diner a few blocks up that way," I pointed east.

"Lead the way," he said.

* * *

"So," said Percy after having swallowed a bite of his food. "Tell me about you."

"What?" I said.  
"I feel like we've only been talking about me. I want to know about you."

"Alright. What do you want to know?"

"Tell me about your family. Mom, dad, siblings, the like."

"My mom died when I was two," I blurted out. I surprised myself because I hardly ever talk about my mom. "I have no memories of her, but my dad used to talk about her all the time. Ninety percent of the words he spoke were 'you're just like your mom.'"

"Did that get irritating?"

"A little bit, yeah," I admitted.

"You said he used to talk about her. Why doesn't he any more?"

"He remarried. She moved in with us and they had twin boys together."

"You have brothers?"

"Half brothers," I corrected.

"You don't sound too happy about it."

I hesitated. "No. I was pretty mad when my dad remarried. All his attention was focused on her. We went from being 'close father and daughter' to 'husband, wife, and that girl they keep alive.'"

"So you don't like your step mom or your brothers?"

"Well _now_ I do. But at first I was pretty peeved. Eventually I came to try and get to know her and we kind of hit it off. We'll never be 'mother and daughter,' but I don't hate her anymore. She's always nice to me too."

"And your half brothers?"

I smiled. "They're sweet. She made me take care of them several times and they latched on to me. They seem to idolize me, for whatever reason. I'm glad to have Bobby and Matthew as my brothers."

"That's good." Percy's plate was finished so now he just maintained eye contact with me while I talked. My plate was barely half gone due to my talking so much.

The waiter walked over to us and set the bill on the table then walked away.

Percy reached for it but I grabbed it first.

"You payed for the cab ride," I said. "I can handle the food."

He raised his hands in surrender. "As you wish," he said.

I stuck the required amount of money in the bill plus a tip and set it back on the table.

"What about your dad?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"Did things ever get better between you two?"

"Only just recently. I'm closer with my stepmom, really. He's tried to mend the gap, but it was just so long of him caring more about my stepmom than me that I'm just not really returning the effort."

We sat in silence for a few seconds will I took a few bites of my food.

"So do you live in New York?" Percy asked.

"No. San Francisco."

"San Francisco? How'd you end up going to CHB then?"

"We had to move from New York to San Francisco because of my dad's job two years ago. I'd already made friends here and the college I want to go to in the future is in New York so they agreed to let me continue going to CHB."

"Oh. They're willing to pay the flight just so you can continue going to a basic boarding school?"  
"No. The deal was that I had to come up with the money myself so I got a summer job. I saved all of it so I had plenty left over after paying for the flight. I also have to pay for the return trip so I can't be too reckless with my spendings."

"That's some dedication," Percy commented.

"I guess so," I said.

We stared into each other's eyes for several seconds before the waiter came back over. I picked up the bill and handed it to him. He walked off again.

"So what about your family?" I asked.

"Nothing special there," Percy said. "My dad fell in love with my mom, they had me, then they married. I'm pretty close with both of them."

"No rocky history there?"

"None."

"You haven't told me about your tattoo yet."

"Oh, yeah. My dad's a fisherman. He takes me out on the water every once and awhile and we catch a few fish. Sometimes he takes a crew on his fishing boat to go hunt large animals like sharks."

"Is that legal?"

"Perfectly. But he has to go through a long process before he can kill one shark. But the payoff is worth it. He used to tell me stories when I was a kid about how he jumped into the water with nothing but a trident and fought the shark. It was always the same tall tale. He jumps in, the shark nearly kills him, then he impales it and brings it to shore to sell it."

"Does he actually have a trident?"

"Yep. Tall and made of metal and painted gold. It just hangs on the living room wall."  
"So he adopted it as like his personal 'symbol' or something?"

"Exactly. He likes to act like he's some sort of sea god." He chuckled at the idea.

"So your parents let you get the tattoo?"

"I turned sixteen and my parents asked what I wanted as a present. I told them I wanted a trident tattoo. My mom was hesitant at first, but she knew how meaningful it was. We had to go to Connecticut to get it legally. A week later, I recommended my dad get one to match and he did."

"That's cute," I said.

He scowled at my word choice but it quickly disappeared.

"Yeah," he said with a sigh. "I guess it is kind of 'cute.'"

The waiter returned and handed me the receipt.

"Thank you for your visit," he said before walking away.

I took the last bite of my food and swallowed it. I wiped my face and hands with a napkin.

"Ready to go?" said Percy.

"Yeah," I said.

We stood and left the building.

Percy called a cab and we rode back to school. We split the cost this time so as to make it equal, per my insistence.

We stopped at the floor were the junior girls' rooms are.

I turned to face him and our eyes met. "Well," I said. "Thanks for the 'strictly platonic' evening."

"It's not evening yet, Wise Girl," he said.

"Whatever, Seaweed Brain. I'll see you later, then."

"See you." He smiled then turned and walked up the stairs.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry I didn't get this out yesterday like I said I would. I was tired when I got home and didn't really get a chance to write on it. But I hope it was worth the wait because we got a little "strictly platonic" Percabeth chapter here.**

 **Also, I'm no longer giving this story absolute priority. I'm going to be flipping between Oath Kept, Now Eternal Breath and Absolute Mortality. So it'll be one chapter of OKNEB then a chapter of AM, so on and so forth.**

 **Also, next chapter here is going to be in Leo's P.O.V. so get excited for that.**

 **As always, leave a review and let me know what you think. I'm open to criticism. If I'm doing something wrong, let me know so I can fix it.**


	8. 8- Leo

Alright, I am the _king_ of engineering. I can make all kinds of complicated things. My mom was a mechanic and my dad is a world renown inventor. My mom taught me a lot of her skills before she died when I was seven. My dad, who is still alive, continues teaching me his ingenuity when it comes to contraption making.

So that's why it's a surprise to say that my Engineering class is my least favorite. I picked it so that I could craft things during school without being yelled at. I may have also possibly chosen it for the ego boost when my classmates and teacher see my mad skills.

But was I wrong. First, the class is hella boring. The teacher has us doing basic stuff like making boxes out of paper that will hold no more than forty and no less than fifty kidney beans.

But that wasn't the worst of it. I completed my box in a class period and the teacher just let me do whatever I want until we start a new project. So what's the problem?  
Apparently I have an arch nemesis. A beautiful diva with dark almond eyes and caramel hair and she was totally rocking that red shirt. That's unimportant.

What is important, she hates me and I have no idea why. A little less than halfway through sophomore year, I accidentally bump into her in the hallway and knock her books out of her hands. I attempted apologizing and helping her pick up her books, but she yelled at me ruthlessly. After being made absolutely embarrassed, I left without helping her with her books because she wouldn't let me.

But that wasn't the extent of it. Second semester that year, we had English together. Luckily, the teacher didn't give us a seating chart and I was free to sit as far away from her as possible. The issue here was that the teacher absolutely loved to give us group projects to do and we were _never_ allowed to pick our partners.

We were "randomly" paired together no less than three times. The first time, I tried taking the high road. I'd been nice, tried apologizing about me knocking her over, and overall being the amazing stand up guy I totally am. But she wasn't having it. I eventually gave up and returned her hatred because _man_ was she annoying.

We never got more than a D on those projects we did together because she was too busy yelling at me to contribute.

Thankfully, that was the only class we had together that year. But that brings us to this year, junior year. First day of engineering, the teacher starts calling out names and pointing to chairs. _There's no way I'll be seated next to_ her, I'd thought to myself. _No one's that unlucky_.

Yeah, someone is that unlucky. That someone's name is Leo Valdez.

The class was filled with two person tables. The teacher pointed to one in the back and said, "Leo Valdez." I sat down and immediately after, the teacher said, "Calypso Martinez," and pointed to the seat next to me. She walked toward me, glaring daggers all the while, and sat down.

The first week was a little rocky. We'd both attempted a new method of hatred: silence. While she still glared at me constantly, not a word was spoken. It was bearable, at the very least. But of course that didn't last.

The Monday after the first week of school, the teacher called roll and then went to the front of the class to explain our next project.

"You'll be working in groups of two," she said. A very faint bubble of hope formed inside me. "Your partner will be the person sitting next to you." The bubble popped.

"Great," Calypso muttered.

"You don't have to sound so disappointed, Sunshine," I said.

"Your project is to build a Rube Goldberg machine," the teacher continued. "Raise your hand if you don't know what that is." No one raised their hand. "Excellent. Your criteria:" she pulled the cap off a marker and turned to face the board. "It must be the size of your table. It must have at least fifteen steps. The final outcome must be relatively simple. An example would be a sign popping up with a message on it. The final outcome mustn't be complex. But for the steps leading up to the finale, the more complex the better. You'll be graded based on creativity. And when everyone's done, we'll vote on who's we like the most. Whoever wins the vote will get extra credit. Is everyone understood?" The class nodded. "Excellent. Now get to planning. It is due next Wednesday. We'll present on the following Thursday and Friday. You have access to every material in the storage closet. But if you'll likely need to obtain your own supplies as well."

"Brilliant," Calypso said. "Finally a project I might have some interest in and I'm paired with _you_."

"Alright, Sunshine," I said. "What the hell is your problem?"

" _Stop_ calling me Sunshine!" she hissed.

"I know you can't be holding a grudge against me because I accidentally knocked you over one time. So what the fuck is it?"

"What is it? Well you're annoying, for one."

"You've hated me since you first laid eyes on me. Before you even got the chance to see how annoying I am."  
"I'm not going to talk about this with _you_."

"Talk about what?"

She didn't say anything. I looked at her face which no longer showed anger, but. . . sadness?  
"Fine," I said. "Don't tell me. Continue hating me for absolutely no reason. Now let's actually start work on this project. You ruined English for me last year, I'm not letting you ruin Engineering."

"Oh, I ruined English for you?"

"Yeah," I said. "You can't possibly believe that I had any fault in you relentlessly yelling at me for the tiniest things."

She opened her mouth, probably to make a retort, but closed it quickly. Possibly out of agresance? Hah! Like Calypso would admit she was in the wrong.

"Fine," she said.

"Fine what?" I said.

"I'm willing to be civil so we can work on the project as long as you are too."

I was both surprised and suspicious to if she would live up to that statement.

"Good," I said. "I have read and agree to the terms of service."

A corner of her mouth twitched. Did I imagine it, or did I actually almost make Calypso smile?

I reached into my bag and pulled out a piece of paper. I twisted my pencil between my fingers.

"Well?" I said. "Let's begin."

* * *

That Saturday I walked up a flight of stairs from mine and Jason's dorm and went down the hallway until I found the number I was looking for. I knocked on the door and thirty seconds later, it opened.

"Valdez," Calypso said. She appeared to have just gotten out of bed, but she still looked beautiful. Uh, that's unimportant.

"Sunshine," I said. She scowled but stepped aside to let me enter. "Where's your roommate?" I asked.

"I don't have one," she said.

"How do you not have one?"

"A dorm fits two people. There are an uneven amount of junior girls. So I'm left in this dorm alone," she said irritably.

"Alright," I said. I set our complete Rube Goldberg machine blueprints on her desk. "You got the things from the supply closet?"

She pointed to the other bed which was piled with all sorts of random materials. "We're still missing quite a bit," she said.

"I guess we'll have to go buy it."

"Do you want to do that now, or do what we can first?"

"We can do it now. I work better without having to stop midway through."

"Okay. Let's go then. We can take my car." She opened the door and exited. I followed her, closing the door behind me.

We entered the parking lot and stopped at a blue Aston Martin. I whistled.

"DB9?" I said. "2005? No, 2006. Damn. I didn't know you were loaded."

"I didn't ask for it," she said. "When I got my license, my father gave it to me as a surprise."

She walked to the driver door and opened it. I opened the passenger door and stepped in.

"What's your father do?" I asked as I pulled on my seatbelt.

"He runs a business," she said as the car kicked into ignition and we began to move. "He pretty much does most of the work himself. He's never around. The few times I do see him he looks as if he'd carried the world on his shoulders."

"Have I heard of the business?" I said.

"Likely. It's Atlas Inc."

"Wait, your father is Atlas Maxwell? That guy has been trying to put my friend's dad out of business for years!"

"I never said I was proud of my parentage," she said. "My mother raised me by herself. When she died about five years ago, he 'took me in,' if you can call it that. He basically just threw me into a large apartment and sends people to cook for me and make sure I'm alive."

"So you don't like him?"

"No." That was the end of the conversation.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright. There's your introduction to Caleo. Sorry if you're anxious to get to the Percabeth parts, but I needed a good time skip and wanted to get Calypso introduced.**

 **Next chapter I think you'll be very pleased with. ;)**


	9. 9- Percy

I have a problem. I'm falling for Annabeth, _hard_. When I first saw her, I thought she was just a pretty girl. Then we started becoming friends and then all I thought she was was a friend who happened to be attractive. Now, two weeks after I'd met her, we were hanging out every day and I found myself wanting to be with her as more than friends.

What's the problem, you say? I have no idea whether she likes me back. Sure, there are some signs that say she _may_ want to surpass our friendship. Like that time she seemed to have been staring at me while my shirt was off. Or when she looked kind of disappointed when I'd asked her out then told her it wasn't a date. But without a girl straight up making a move on me, I have no idea what her intentions are.

Just ask her out, you say? I can't ask her out. If she does only see me as nothing but a friend, then asking her out would completely ruin our friendship and I can't have that. I know it's only been two weeks, but I can't bear the thought of not having her as at least a friend. We've grown quite accustomed to each other for just a short amount of time.

Now I just have to bide my time, wait for _her_ to reveal whether or not she likes me. Until then, all I can do is pretend there's nothing going on in my tiny, seaweed brain.

But I can't help stealing glances at her. I wanted for time to freeze so I could take an eternity to memorize every detail about her. How great her cheekbones are. Those few loose strands of hair that escaped her ponytail to fail in front of her face. Those eyes. Those stormy gray, beautiful eyes.

"Mister Jackson?" I heard a female voice say loudly. I looked up to see my Oceanography teacher staring at me expectantly.

"Sorry?" I said. A couple kids snickered.

"I asked you," she said, "what the difference between a nautical mile and a regular mile is."

"Oh. A nautical mile is used at sea, and a regular mile is used on land," I said. "And a regular mile is longer than a nautical mile."

"We got that," she said. There was more snickering. "But why exactly do we have nautical miles rather than just continue using regular miles?"

"I don't know," I said.

"I figured." More snickering. "I'll explain it again since Mister Jackson wasn't paying attention. The equator divides the Earth into two halves called hemispheres. The equator wraps all the way around the planet forming a circle, or the circumference of the planet. So we can take the equator and divide it into three hundred and sixty degrees. We then take a degree and divide it into sixty minutes."

"Why not an hour?" someone said, which earned more snickering.

"Minute as in unit of distance," said the teacher. "We then take a minute of arc and we call it a nautical mile. So that should make the Earth's circumference a perfect twenty-one thousand six-hundred nautical miles by multiplying sixty times three-sixty, correct?"

"No," I said.

"No?" said the teacher. "Why is that?"

"Because the Earth isn't a perfect sphere."

"You are correct. The Earth's circumference is twenty-one thousand six-hundred and thirty-nine nautical miles. Now that you are informed of the unit of distance we use at sea, I beg you pay attention in the future, Mister Jackson."

I nodded.

Class ended twenty minutes later and I went to English with Mr. Blofis. I didn't care too much for the class, but I didn't hate it. The teacher was pretty nice. He was patient and made the class bearable.

But I constantly found myself looking forward to P.E. in fourth period. Annabeth was in it, as was Grover. I didn't mind working out. I actually kind of enjoyed it. But one of the best parts about it was getting to see Annabeth in nothing but short shorts and a sports bra. I constantly scolded myself for looking at her like that, but I couldn't help it.

"Alright, cupcakes," said Coach Hedge. We'd already run a lap around the track and done our warmup. "We'll be doing tennis this week. I've already set up the rackets and tennis balls on the court. We're going to do a little bit of a tournament. The winners get a free day next monday. You'll be in teams of two. A boy and a girl per team, to make it even."

Grover looked disheartened. I shrugged and said, "Sorry, G-Man."  
"Get to the court and pick your teammate," Coach Hedge said.

We began walking to the other end of the school where all the sports fields were.

"Guess it's you and me then," Annabeth said to me.

"Well," I said, pretending to look thoughtful. "I've got so many other options."  
Annabeth's eyes flared dangerously.

"But you're clearly the best candidate," I said quickly. She gave a sarcastically sweet smile.

"What about me?" said Grover.

"I'll be your teammate, Grover," said a high female voice from behind us. We turned to see a pretty, petite girl with amber colored hair walking up to us. She had green eyes, but not sea green like mine. They were darker, almost plant-like. She was wringing her hands nervously.

Grover suddenly looked shy. "Uh, you will?" he said.

"Sure!" she said. "I'm Juniper."

"I know," Grover said. She blushed.

"Well that's solved," I said.  
When Annabeth and I separated from Grover and Juniper, Annabeth turned to me.

"Grover has a crush on Juniper," she said.

"Oh," I said. "That's why he acted so strange. He told you?"

"No," she said. "But it's a pretty easy inference. He doesn't act so shy around any other pretty girl."

"So you can just tell when people have crushes on other people?" I said, suddenly nervous.

"Not anybody," she said with what sounded like annoyance in her voice. "It was just a deduction."

"Ah," I said. "Wise Girl playing the detective."

"Whatever, Seaweed Brain."

* * *

The next day, Annabeth, Grover, and I were walking from gym to lunch when a large bald guy walked up to us. He looked about the age of a senior, but didn't appear to have the wit to have made it that far.

He stared straight at Annabeth. "Hey there, beautiful," he said. "Why don't you ditch these two faggots and you and I can find some place private?"

Annabeth opened her mouth but I stepped in front of her protectively. "Stay away from her," I said dangerously.

"Try and stop me," he said.

"I am," I said. He swung his fist and I caught it. I twisted it and he winced in pain. I twisted it some more and he fell to his knees.

I stared into his eyes menacingly. I let it go, expecting him to leave. But he stood and swung with his other fist. _Man, this guy is stupid,_ I thought to myself. I grabbed his wrist mid punch held onto it while I slid between his legs, making him flip forward, hit his head on the ground, and end up on his back. I let go of his wrist and got to my feet in one quick motion.

He lay there, stunned for several seconds before getting to his feet. He took the hint this time and staggered off, rubbing his head and looking dazed.

Annabeth and Grover stared at me in shock.

"I could have handled that," Annabeth said.

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?" Grover asked with amazement in his voice.

"I took martial arts as a kid," I said.

"So did I," said Annabeth.

"Really?" I said, perhaps a little more surprised than I should have.

"What?" said Annabeth defensively. "You don't think girls can take martial arts?"

" _No_ ," I said. "I just—" I stopped when I saw the look on her face. "Oh. You're joking."

"Yes, Seaweed Brain."

"Seaweed Brain?" Grover asked.

"Long story," I said.  
"Short story," Annabeth corrected. "He fell into a river and got seaweed in his hair."

"It was _moss_ , Wise Girl," I said.

She laughed. Grover still looked confused.

* * *

The following Friday I was walking the track with Grover.

"Do you want to hang out this weekend?" I asked him.

"I can't," he said. "I, uh. Have a date."

I stared at him. "Did you finally ask out Juniper?"

"How—?"

"Come on. You don't think I didn't notice the way you look at her?"

He stared at the ground. "Yeah, I did." He looked up. His face was a mixture between nervousness and happiness. "But when are you going to ask out Annabeth?"

"What—?" I said.  
"Come on," he said with a grin on his face. "You don't think I didn't notice the way you look at her?"

We turned around the edge of the track and I had a clear view of the dining pavilion. Annabeth was sitting at a table with Piper. She'd freed her hair from her ponytail sometime between the end of school and now. She looked just as beautiful as she always did.

I couldn't bear it anymore.

"Now," I said, answering Grover's question.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, so I did to AM chapters in a row because the last chapter was centered around Caleo already.**

 **I was also too anxious to get this chapter out. Hope you all are pumped for Percy and Annabeth's date.**

 **Also, it says there's twenty reviews on the story yet I can only see the first seventeen. So if you wrote one of those three reviews that I'm unable to see, you know why I haven't responded to it.**


	10. 10- Annabeth

I was sitting in the dining pavilion with Piper on Friday after school.

"That Drew girl is _so_ annoying," said Piper. "The second Jason and Reyna broke up she was all over him. It's ridiculous."

"Do I sense a little bit of jealousy?" I said.

Her eyes narrowed.

"It's fine," I said with a small chuckle. "I never liked her either."

"Anyway," she said. "Want to do something tomorrow?"

"Sure. Like what?"

"I don't know, something fun and new. This school is _so_ boring. What about karaoke?"

"I can't sing."

"Not even a little?"

"You don't want to hear me try."

"Well then something else."

I spotted something over Piper's shoulder. Percy and Grover had been walking the track since classes ended but Percy separated from him and was headed straight toward me and Piper.

Piper noticed my gaze when Percy was about ten feet from us and turned.

"Oh," she said. "Hey Percy!"

"Hey Piper," said Percy. "Annabeth, do you have plans tomorrow?"

I glanced at Piper. "Uh, I do actu—"

"No," Piper interupted. "She doesn't." She had a strange gleam in her eye but hurriedly stood up. "See you later," she said then winked and walked off.

"No, apparently," I corrected. "I don't have plans."

"Great," he said with a smile. "Do you want to go out with me then?"

"Sure. I'm down for another 'strictly platonic' day."

"No," he said. "Not platonic."

"Oh." I was shocked and may have blushed."Are you asking—?"

"You out on a date?" He said then smiled. Butterflies were going ballistic in my stomach. "Yeah, I am."

I had no idea Percy saw me in that way. I mean, I'm not oblivious. I've seen him stare at me, but I figured that was just because he thought I was attractive. I'd not put my hopes so high as to think he'd actually want to _date_ me.

Percy's expression turned worried and I realized I hadn't answered his question.

"Yes!" I said quickly. I gave a smile and put as much emotion into it as possible, so as to try and make him understand that my silence wasn't contemplation. "Of course I do."

He looked relieved. "Awesome! So I guess I'll pick you up around four?"

"Sounds good, Seaweed Brain."

He walked back to Grover grinning.

* * *

Don't ask me why, but my happiness turned into anxiety the next day.

"Don't worry," Piper said. She'd insisted on helping me get ready for the date, rejecting my refusals. She was currently brushing my hair, getting ready to straighten it. "You've practically been dating already."

"But it's going to be so awkward," I said.

"Why? You two have liked each other since day one."

"What if it doesn't go well? How could we still be friends after that?"

"Annabeth, I've never seen you like this. You're flustered, confused, nervous. You have a plan for everything and always get your desired outcome. Why is this any different? Just relax."

Surprisingly, I did. Piper can be very persuasive. "Alright, hair's done. Now for your outfit."

* * *

An hour later, there was a knock on my door. I opened it to see Percy in a pair of nice black pants and a pure white button up t-shirt. His hair was neatly combed and he held a single flower in his hand. He had a smile on his face which I returned.

"That's a dandelion," I said.

"It's the best I could find," he said before he gave a mock bow. "But I promise you won't find a finer dandelion on campus."

"How romantic," I said, taking the dandelion.

"You look great," he said. Piper had tried to get me to wear a dress but I adamantly refused. Instead, I wore a red blouse and compromised with a skirt that fell just above my knees. Piper loaned me both.

"As do you." I stepped out and closed the door behind me. We began walking side by side to the staircase.

"So what's the plan?" I asked.

"It's a surprise."

"Is it a picnic?"

He scowled. "Yes," he said through gritted teeth. I laughed.

"Do you not like it?" he asked.

"No," I said hurriedly. "It sounds perfect."

When we got to the cab he opened the door and stepped aside with a mock bow. "Milady," he said.

When the cab took off, I said, "You're not going to keep up this false posh act the entire date, right?"

"I just think a fine lady like yourself deserves proper respect," he said.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, fine," he said. "Dropping the act."

About ten minutes later Percy paid the cabbie and we got out of the cab. We were now standing thirty feet from the river Percy had fallen into. This time there was a rowboat at the shore, big enough for four people.

Percy led me toward it. When we got closer, I noticed there was a board nailed on the two middle benches to form a makeshift table. There was a blanket atop the table and a picnic basket on top of that.

"You just trusted no one to steal this?" I said.

"I had it guarded," was all he said. We arrived at the edge of the river and Percy stepped onto the boat. I followed. He then took out a lighter and lit the candles I hadn't noticed that were nailed around the edge of the boat.

"Getting fancy," I said as I sat on one bench facing the picnic basket and Percy sat opposite me.

"That's me," Percy said sarcastically. "I just ooze fanciness."

He then picked up an oar and pushed us off into the water.

"I don't think these candles will stay lit long, " I said.

"We'll just have to enjoy it while it lasts." He then popped open the basket. "Dig in."

Inside was a loaf of bread, a plastic container filled with brown gravy, another container filled with shredded chicken and turkey, and there was a two-liter bottle of root beer. There were also several sticks of string cheese.

I stared at him. "How did you know?"

"I may have done a little research, on a search engine called ."

"You really went all out."

"I wouldn't call it 'all out.' It really wasn't much. Now tell me the story behind this."

"Piper didn't tell you?"

"Nope. All she gave me was a list and told me to bring the stuff on it."

"Figures," I said then grabbed three slices of bread. I started to string the string cheese as I talked. Percy copied me. "I told you how my mom died when I was two?" He nodded. "I said I didn't have any memories of her. I lied. I have one." I finished stringing the cheese and laid half of it on a slice of bread. I then covered it with turkey then soaked a second piece of bread in the gravy and put it on top. After that, I added the chicken, the rest of the cheese, and then a third piece of bread on top.

Percy stared at the sandwich in awe. "Why the string cheese?"  
"I'm getting to it," I said. "The day before she died— or maybe week? I don't remember exactly, it was so long ago. Anyway, one day, soon before she died, my mother and I were at home doing something and I asked for something to eat. We didn't have much on hand. It was maybe a couple days after Thanksgiving so we had _some_ leftovers but not much. From the fridge she collected turkey, chicken, brown gravy, and string cheese. And there was a bottle of root beer to drink as well."

"Why string cheese?" Percy said.

"From what my father told me, my mother was obsessed with it. She always made sure the fridge was stocked with it. He said she said she thinks it helps her think, I think."

"That was a confusing sentence."

"Was it?"

"Whatever. Go on."

"My father told me my mom was always a strategist. She was intelligent. She'd always find a solution to her issues. So that day, she took all the ingredients we had and invented a sandwich, _this_ sandwich." I gestured to the one in my hand before taking a bite. My eyes rolled up into my head. I forgot how good it tasted.

Percy took a bite and had a similar reaction. "Okay, wow."

"I probably didn't even eat a quarter of it before I got full. It was difficult to even fit it into my tiny two year old mouth." Percy and I chuckled. I took another bite. "The memory imbedded itself into my brain because that was the last time I'd ever seen her."

"How did she die?"

I was silent for a moment. "She was a police officer. She died while attempting to arrest a pedophile."

We ate our sandwiches in silence for a moment.

"Genius idea, Piper," Percy said. "You know what a date needs? Sad stories."

I smirked. "I don't know. She knows a thing or two about these kinds of things."

Percy finished his sandwich and then I did too. He reached into the basket and brought out the root beer.

"Did you forget to bring cups?" I said.

"No," he said, looking around the boat. He then found two yellow plastic cups and said, "Aha!" he handed me one and poured both our drinks. He then raised his filled cup in front of him and said, "cheers." I clinked mine against his and repeated the word and we both took a sip.

"I'm tired of hearing about the past," I said. "Let's talk about the future. What do you want to do, you know, as a career?"

He contemplated. "I'm not sure exactly. Anything to do with the ocean."

"Why the ocean?"

"It's always interested me. My dad took me out on his boat once and I'd never felt as invigorated as standing on the deck with the sea mist in my face. But I particularly like the animals. So I guess a Marine Biologist? Or a churro guy at Seaworld."

I laughed. "That's the dream." He chuckled too.

"What about you? You mentioned architecture. Explain that."

"It makes sense to me. It's challenging, but everything seems to fall into place like a puzzle. A puzzle that when you finish, it gets you something _permanent_. I guess that's why. I want to make an impact, build something permanent. You know the Greek Parthenos?" He nodded. "It's been around for millenia. I want to be responsible for something that's still beautiful two thousand years from now."

"That makes sense. I don't think I'd have the patience for something like that."

I smiled then took a drink of root beer.

"You said you took martial arts too," said Percy.

"Yeah," I said. "As I kid I aspired to be like my mom. I wanted to be able to defend myself should the need arise, or take down a criminal. I took classes from age seven to thirteen. What about you?"

"Bullies were frequent at my other schools. I just wanted to look out for the little guy, so my dad put me in martial arts. From when I was nine to when I was fourteen."

"So I had more experience than you."

"You saying you think you can take me?"

"Yep."

"I beat my sensei."

"So did I."

"Alright, now you're just copying me."

We shared a laugh.

* * *

Percy and I were now back at school. It was around eight and we were on my dorm's floor. Percy and I stopped in front of my door.

"Thanks for the lovely evening," I said.

"No need to get so cheesy," said Percy. "As far as first dates go, this one was pretty great."

" _First_ date? So you think there'll be another?"

"I hope so." He smiled. "Well, uh. . . I guess—"

I stopped his awkward goodbye by planting my hands on either side of his face and bringing his lips down to meet mine. It only tool him a second to get over his surprise and return the kiss.

I pulled away but his face still showed a little bit of shock.

"I've been waiting to do that," I said.

" _Ahem_ ," said a voice. I looked to the side to realize the door was open and Thalia was standing there. She had an amused smile on her face.

"Sorry," I said and stepped out from in front of the door so she could leave.

I stepped into the dorm and closed the door halfway. "I look forward to that second date," I said then closed the door.

I lay down on my bed, happiness enveloping me.

* * *

 **A/N: Double digits baby. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this Percabeth chapter.**

 **Oh, and the bug is fixed so I can see new reviews again. Leave me one to tell me what you think of the story at this point.**


	11. 11- Piper

So Percy and Annabeth have been dating for three weeks now. And for some reason it's driving me mad with jealousy. They were just so perfect together. I mean, I'd always been jealous of Frank Zhang's and Hazel Levesque's relationship, but I'm not constantly around those two. But I _am_ constantly around Annabeth and Percy, so there's no avoiding _their_ adorableness.

Annabeth, Percy, Leo, Nico, and I were sitting at our usual table during lunch on a Wednesday. Jason had chosen to ist directly next to me which made my heart feel like it was trying to escape my chest.

Grover wasn't here because he liked to eat lunch alone with his girlfriend, Juniper. Yet _another_ adorable couple.

"Have any of you seen 9 yet?" asked Percy. He was, of course, sitting right next to Annabeth. They'd chosen not to hold hands so as not to have to eat their food one handed, which I'm grateful about.

"I've seen the trailer," said Leo. "It looks pretty interesting."

"I haven't heard of it," said Annabeth.

"Me neither," said Jason and I at the same time. My heart went, _ba-dump._

"I've seen it," said Nico.

"Is it any good?" said Percy.

"I liked it. It's got a really dark theme to it."

"What's it about?" asked Annabeth.

"It's about this guy who puts his own life into these puppets after the apocalypse," said Nico.

"He put his _life_ into the puppets?" asked Leo.

"It's an animated movie, Leo," said Percy.

"But how could he put his life into the puppets?"

"Of course Leo's already trying to figure out to put _his_ life into puppets," said Jason.

"Should have seen him after we watched Coraline," I said. "Was ranting for weeks about the 'buttons for eyes' thing."

Jason and I laughed, but no one else did which made me feel kind of awkward.

"So do you want to see it this weekend?" said Percy who was looking at Annabeth.

"Yeah, it sounds interesting," she said.

"I can probably find it online," said Leo. He obviously would rather go to the theatre, but didn't want to infringe on Percy and Annabeth's (who he'd now nicknamed 'Percabeth,' much to the displeasure of Percy and Annabeth) date.

After lunch was over, I'd isolated myself with Jason. I'd finally decided enough time had passed since he and Reyna broke up.

"Did you see there's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight?" I said.

"Really?" said Jason."

"Yeah. I thought maybe you'd want to go see it."

"Yeah, sure. That sounds cool. When is it?"

"Around midnight."

"I'll see you then."

* * *

Jason had shown up at mine and Clarisse La Rue's dorm about ten minutes before midnight. Clarisse wasn't here. She was probably in some closet with her boyfriend, Chris Rodriguez.

We walked together up to the dorm roof. The door was normally locked, but I'd gotten a lockpick off of Leo who taught me how to work it.

Jason and I stood at the rail and looked at the sky. No meteors passed for several minutes. I didn't want Jason to think I'd dragged him up here on false pretenses (even though my pretenses were _totally_ false). Finally, the first meteor streaked across the sky. Soon, more followed and there was one about every minute. My grandfather probably had some Cherokee myth to explain the meteor shower, but right now I was creating my own story.

Jason took my hand— my heart skipped a beat— and pointed to two stars that crossed each other to form a cross.

"Wow," he said. "I can't believe noone else wanted to see this."

"Actually I didn't invite anyone else."

He smiled. "Oh yeah?"

"Mmm-hmm. Six is a crowd, you know?"

"Yeah. Do you know how much trouble we'd be in if we were caught up here?"

"I'd make something up. I'm pretty persuasive. So do you want to dance, or what?"

He laughed. His electric blue eyes were incredible. His smile was even more amazing in the light of the stars. "With no music," he said. "At night. On a rooftop. Sounds dangerous."

"I'm a dangerous girl," I said.

"That, I believe."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone and played music. "No music, you said?"

"I stand corrected."

I set it on the ground and took both his hands and we began to slow dance. Pretty soon, he leaned in— oh my god _he_ made the first move— and kissed me. We stood there for an eternity.

Finally, he pulled away. We stared into each other's eyes, our noses several inches apart.

"Do you know why Reyna and I broke up?" he asked.

Wait, was he seriously going to talk about his ex-girlfriend right after we'd just kissed? I shook my head, deciding to humor him.

"It was mutual," he said. "We'd never have worked out. We didn't have much in common. The relationship was just awkward. And there was another reason."

A smile poked at the corners of my mouth. "And what was that?"

"I think you know," he said. I felt lighter than air as he leaned down to connect our lips once more. The song had finished and we were in silence now.

When we'd pulled away from each other again, I said, "So do you want to see that movie Percy mentioned?"

"Sure. But at a different time than them."

"Look," I said. "If this is a thing, I think we should hide it for a little while."

"Why's that?"

"Because Leo and Annabeth have been trying to pin us together _forever_ and I don't want them to gloat."

"That sounds fair," he said.

He leaned down and kissed me again. I have a feeling we'll be doing that a lot from now on.

* * *

 **A/N: So, yeah. Another short chapter. I want this story to touch up on all the canon couples, so I had to get in a Jasper chapter. Also, I needed a good time skip so that I can get to writing some adorable Percabeth fluff.**

 **As always, please leave a review to let me know what you think. Criticism only helps me mend my mistakes.**


	12. 12- Percy

So Annabeth and I have a pretty great thing going on. We always sit next to each other when possible. We often do our homework together, followed by some making out.

But she refuses to make out until we've actually finished our homework. Unfortunately, I get frustrated easily and it takes a while to finish.

I was lying on my bed on a Wednesday night, Annabeth was sitting on the edge.

"Ugh," I said. "How the hell am I supposed to write three pages on school lunches? I've written all the information on one page."

"You have to elaborate more," said Annabeth.

"I _have_ elaborated. Do you want me to just repeat what I've already written until I've filled three pages?"

"Restating points is actually a big part of easy writing."

"That's stupid."

She just shrugged.

"Can we take a break now?" I said. "This isn't even due until next Monday."

"Fine," she said. I sat up and leaned toward her. I was surprised and disappointed when she put a finger to my lips. "Not yet," she said. She grabbed my hand and pulled the both of us to our feet.

"We going somewhere?" I asked.

"Maybe," she said with a smile.

She led the both of us out off my dorm. Nico was sitting on the ground with his back against the wall and a sketch pad in his hands. He looked up at us.

"Uh, sorry, man," I said. I motioned to our dorm. "All yours."

He stood and walked in, closing the door behind him.

"We need to find a better place to hangout," I said. "I feel bad kicking Nico out of his own dorm."

"Yeah," she agreed. She led us to the staircase at the end kid the hall and surprised me when she started to ascend, rather than descend. We got to the top of the staircase and found a door which I assumed led to the roof.

Annabeth opened the door ave stepped through, me following close behind.

"Isn't that door supposed to be locked?" I said.

"I assume so," she said. We walked to the railing and stared at the campus.

"It seems bigger from up here," she said.

"Looks fine to me," I said.

She rolled her eyes. "Come on, Seaweed Brain."

I'd given up trying to tell her it was moss, not seaweed. She led me further down the railing and then I noticed a blanket was on the ground. We sat down on it.

"We're inside twenty-four seven," Annabeth said. "It gets claustrophobic, you know?"

"Yep," I said. "Now we've got the entire universe looming above us. It's less artificial."

She smiled. Probably because she was thinking the exact same thing. She leaned toward me and kissed me. She wrapped her arm around my neck and pulled herself closer to me. There was no space between our torsos.

Soon, our lips parted and we were just holding each other. Without even thinking about out, I fell asleep.

* * *

"Oh you two are in so much trouble," said a male voice.

I opened my eyes and saw a tall, buff Asian guy looking down at us. I recognized him as Frank Zhang. He's a sophomore and friends with Leo.

Annabeth sat up. I did too. " _Nothing_ happened," she said.

"Yeah," I agreed. "We feel asleep. That's it."

"Fine," said Frank. "But you missed class."

"What time is it?" said Annabeth.

"It's lunch."

"What are you even doing on the roof?" I said.

"Coach Hedge saw me when lunch stated and told me to look for you. You'll need to see the principal."

"Dammit," Annabeth said. "I've never been truant before."

"It's fine," I said. "For a first time offence the mossy we'll get is detention."

"Never been there either," she said.

"Actually," said Frank. "If the principal knew you were truant because you were having sex—"

My face reddened.

"We did _not_ have sex," said Annabeth. She motioned to her body. "See? Fully clothed."

Frank raised his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine," he said. "But don't think he'll let you off easy."

With that, he turned and left. Me and Annabeth followed.

* * *

"Ah," said Mr. Berns. "If it isn't our two little ditchers."

"It was an accident," I said. "We overslept."

"From what I've been told, neither of you were in your dorms come curfew."

"We were hanging out outside of our rooms and accidentally fell asleep," said Annabeth. "That's all."

"Where were you 'hanging out,' exactly?"

Annabeth and I glanced at each other.

"The roof of the dorm building," Annabeth said.

"Ahh," said the principal. "Now we're getting somewhere. You realize the roof is off-limits, correct?"

"We didn't know," I lied. "The door was unlocked."

"It was unlocked? Hll have to talk to the janitors about that. Well innocent until proven guilty. I'll accept that your truancy was an accident. I'll let you off with a detention. See me after eight period. You're free to go to lunch. Actually, fifth. Lunch ends in two minutes. And don't go pin the roof again. Consider this a warning."

"Thank you," Annabeth said.

"Yeah, thanks," I said.

We left the room. When we got to the educational building, the bell rang. I gave Annabeth a peck on the lips and split off to my fifth period.

* * *

After history, Annabeth and I headed down to the faculty building. We walked to the desk and Nancy Clementine, the receptionist, looked up.

"Can I help you?" she said.

"Uh," I said. "The principal is supposed to see us about a detention."

"Ahh, right. The ditchers."

"Yep," said Annabeth. "I guess that's us."

"Go right on in."

We did. The door opened and Mr. Berns appeared in the doorway.

He was momentarily shocked to see us before he remembered.

"Oh, right," he said. "The ditchers are here for the detention." He seemed to contemplate something. "You know what? I have something to do right now. You're off the hook. Don't do it again, you'll regret it, detention over, yada yada yada."

"Really?" said Annabeth.

"Yeah. Now goo on. Do teenager things."

"Okay," I said skeptically. We left and began walking to the dorms. Shortly after, the principal left and entered the parking lot.

"That was odd," Annabeth said finally.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Wonder what that's about."

* * *

 **A/N: Leave a review to tell me what you think of the story at this point. I welcome criticism.**

 **Also, I have a new story out called Sinister. It's on halt for now, but I'd be grateful if you went over there and told me what you think of the idea.**


	13. 13- Charles

I woke up and sat on the edge of my bed for probably way too long. My roommate, Will Solace, was already gone. I opened my nightstand and found a tank top and a pair of jeans and threw them on. They wrapped around my muscular physique tightly, but I was still comfortable.

I grabbed my backpack and begrudgingly left for class. You see, I hate high school. I find it pointless. I'd have dropped out as soon as possible had my mother let me.

I walked into English and sat down in the back in my usual seat. The bell rang and the teacher started roll call.

Just as he said, "Silena?", the door opened and a very pretty girl walked in and said, "here!"

"Late again?" said Mr. Blofis.

"Sorry," said Silena. She scanned the room and then sat down in the only empty seat, which was directly next to me.

My heart fluttered as she sat and she avoided everyone's gaze.

I realized I was still staring at her and averted my eyes when she gave me a sideways glance. She wore that same black choker she always wore. Her long black hair was let down but looked hastily brushed. She looked like she had worn makeup but hurriedly washed it off. Without it, she was even more beautiful in my opinion. But I couldn't help notice the distressed look on her face.

She used to wear earrings, but her ears bore scars that showed they'd been brutally ripped out at one point.

Her outfit looked as if it were meant to cover as much skin as possible. She had a plain white long-sleeve shirt under a stylish vest. She wore black leggings that went all the way down to her ankles and a knee length skirt over that.

"We'll be starting Hamlet today," said Mr. Blofis. "There are copies under your desk. Read the first scene in pairs. Then come up and get an assignment from me. Begin."

I looked at Silena and she looked at me too, with those brilliant blue eyes that were filled with pain.

Silena and I are friends. Not close friends, but we knew each other since grade school. I'd had a crush on her for a long time, but she was dating an older guy named Luke who graduated last year.

"So," she said. Her voice was shaky as if she'd just been crying.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

She stared at the desk as she answered, "Yeah, of course I am."

"Silena. . ."

"What? I'm fine." She was obviously lying. She scratched the back of her neck nervously and her choker broke and fell off.

It landed on the ground next to my foot so I leaned down and picked it up. She held putt her hand but I examined it. I found the problem and fixed it before handing it back to her.

"Thanks," she said whilst hurriedly putting it back on. But she didn't put it on fast enough.

"What is that?" I said.

"What is what?" she said innocently.

"You're not okay. Who gave you this bruises?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"There are bruises all over your throat. Did Luke—?"

"No!" she said unconvincingly. She looked as if she were about to cry, and I knew it wouldn't be the first time today. "Just _please_ drop it."

I didn't want to press her further.

"Alright," I said. "Scene one."

* * *

After school that day, I found Silena behind the classroom building. She was sitting with her back to the wall and her arms wrapped around her knees. Her hair was disheveled and her clothes looked sloppy for some reason. She was too busy crying to notice me.

I carefully sat down on the wall next to her and she wrapped her arms around me and pushed her face into my shoulder. I returned the hug.

"Luke. . ." she said between sobs.

I tensed. "I'm not Luke," I said.

"I— I know, Charlie. It— it's Luke. . ."

"What is he doing to you?"

She didn't say anything but sobbed harder for a while. Finally, she stopped crying and pulled away from me.

She wiped her face and stared at me.

"What's Luke doing to you?" I said gently.

She took off her choker to reveal the bruises on her throat. She then rolled up her sleeves to show more bruises along her arms.

" _He_ did this to you?" I said. She nodded. "Why?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. He— he doesn't take no for an answer."

"What are you saying?"

She stared directly into my eyes. Hers began to fill with tears again.

"He _raped_ you?" I said. She gave a tiny nod.

"Is that why you're always late to English?" She gave another nod.

"I'm going to kill him."

"No!" she said, grabbing my bicep tightly. "You can't."

"Leave him. Call the cops."

She started to cry again. "I— want— to," she said.

"Why don't you?"

"I can't!" she said whilst still crying.

"You have to. He doesn't deserve you."

"I'm not strong enough."

I gently placed my hands on either side of her face and directed her gaze to my eyes. She began to calm. I lowered my hands down to her shoulders. Her eyes showed less pain and she actually smiled, something I've not seen her do since sophomore year.

She leaned in toward me and I was hesitant to follow lead, not wanting to take advantage of her. Our lips met and we just sat there for awhile.

* * *

 **A/N: Surprise! I know you're probably wanting more Percabeth or Caleo or even Jasper, but I wanted a tiny change of pace.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this. Sorry it's so short. Next chapter will be Annabeth's P.O.V. but you'll hear a little more about Charlena at the start of it.**

 **As always, please leave a review to let me know what you think. It does help speed up the writing process.**


	14. 14- Annabeth

"Did you hear the news?" Percy asked. It was lunch so Piper, Percy, Jason, Nico, Leo, and I were sitting together at our usual table.

"What news?" Nico said.

"Someone who went here last year was arrested for domestic abuse. Some guy named Luke Castellan."

I nearly choked pin my water.

"What?" I said.

" _Luke_?" said Leo. "I know the guy was a total douche, but I didn't think he'd do something as horrible as that."

"Poor Silena," Piper said. "I had no idea."

"Do you think we should say something to her?" I asked.

"We hardly know her," said Piper. "She wouldn't want that kind of attention."

"Does she go here?" Percy asked.

"Yeah," I said. "She's a senior."

"How long do you think it's been going on?" asked Jason.

"It's really none of our business," I said.

"Annabeth's right," Nico said.

"As always," Percy muttered. I smirked.

"Wow," said Jason. "First Berns now this. Rough week."

"What?" said Piper. Me and everyone else looked equally confused.

"What?" said Jason.

"You said something about Berns," said Percy.

"He's in prison," said Jason. He looked baffled.

"Since when?" said Nico.

"Since Monday. He was buying and reselling heroin. Apparently some of his customers were students. How have none of you heard about this yet?"

"I had no idea someone so jolly and pure could be a criminal," I said.

"So who's going to be our principal now?" Percy asked.

"The school board is searching," said Jason. "Their best candidate is a guy called Mr. D, and he's horrible for the job. If they don't get anyone better, then they'll have no choice but to accept him."

"How do you know all this?" said Leo.

"Rumors, mainly. And the guy used to work for my dad, so that's house I know he'll be a bad principal."

"It's Breaking Bad in real life," said Percy.

"But he didn't make the heroin," said Leo.

"And he probably has no ties to the Mexican cartel," I said.

"Alright," Percy said.

"And he's a principal, not a science teacher," said Leo.

"Fine," Percy said. "You win."

"And it's heroin, not crystal meth," I said.

Percy just glowered while those of us who've seen the show smirked.

* * *

"You realize what day it is?" Percy said.

"Saturday," I said.

"It's been exactly one month since I got the greatest girlfriend ever."

"You bothered remembering that?"

"Didn't you?"

"Of course _I_ did. I just didn't think you would."

"Why? Is it because I'm a guy? Don't think we're capable of caring about the little details?"

"Alright," I said and raised my hands in mock surrender. "I'm sorry."

He just smirked.

"So do you have plans then?" I said.

"No. Coming up with date ideas is hard."

Currently we were lying together on a blanket on the ground at the edge of campus. Our hands were laced together.

"I have something we can do," I said.

"Yeah?

"Yeah. We'll go swimming."

"You want to go swimming for our one month anniversary?"

"Why not? You said you love to swim. I certainly don't mind it. It'll be fun."

"Okay." He looked impressed for some reason. "Well let's go get something to swim in."

* * *

Percy and I met outside the changing rooms at the public pool. I was now wearing a two-piece orange bikini and Percy was wearing a pair of Harrison l Hawaiian style swim trunks.

"Are you staring at me?" I said to him with a smirk.

"No," he said. "I was just admiring your tattoo."

I had an owl tattooed on my right side just above my waist.

"It's my favorite animal," I said.

"How come this is the first time I'm hearing of it?" Percy said whilst closing the distance between us.

When he was close enough I ran my hand up his chest to his chin and pulled him into a kiss. "I figured you'd have seen it eventually." I had a sly smile on my face.

"Are you flirting?" he said.

"Maybe. Well? Let's swim."

We walked to the edge of the pool. I tried pushing Percy in but he grabbed my hand and pulled me in too. The water was warm and there weren't a lot of people here.

Percy and I laughed together.

"Wow, Wise Girl," said Percy with a sarcastic grin. "I feel betrayed."

"I didn't realize you had such fast reflexes," I said.

"Not the only thing I'm fast at," he said with a wink. "Care for a little race?"

"You've never beaten me in a race," I teased. "What makes you so confident now?"

"Home turf," was all he said before taking off. I swam after him, but he was a _lot_ faster than me. He finished a lap then caught up to me.

"What's that about never having won a race?" he mocked.

"I guess swimming isn't my strong suit," I said.

"I'll say."

I gave him a playful shove.

"Now," he said. "The diving board."

He climbed onto the edge of the pool and I swam away from the two diving boards.

"You not coming?" he called out to me.

"Better view over here," I called back.

He shrugged and climbed the ladder of the taller diving board. He bounced pin the boards a couple of times then dolphin dived into the water with a large splash.

I swam over to him. "Impressive," I said.

"You're turn, Wise Girl," he said.

I swam to the edge of the pool and hopped to the edge. I climbed the ladder of the taller diving board and turned my back to the pool. I bounced three times then backflipped into the pool.

My face broke the surface and Percy was already next to me.

He brushed my wet hair from my face.

"Show Off," he said with the corners of his mouth poking into a smile.

I put my hand on the back of his head and pulled his face down to met mine. Our lips locked.

Percy inhaled deeply through his nose before bringing the two of us underwater. I couldn't breathe but I didn't care. It was the best underwater kiss ever.

Percy let us resurface and we both gasped for breath.

After I'd regained my oxygen, I just smiled at Percy.

"So," I said. "Let's see some more diving skills."

* * *

Percy and I were fully changed and exited the pool building. Our hair was still wet and it was getting kind of cold outside.

I shivered. "It's chilly," I said.

Percy held out his arm. "I'll keep you warm," he said. I rolled my eyes and let him wrap his arm around my shoulders and press my body into his as we walked to the roadside and waited for the cab Percy called to arrive.

We got back to school and ascended the staircase. We walked to Percy's dorm and he opened the door. Nico wasn't there.

I soaked up the warmth of the room and sat down on Percy's bed. He sat down next to me.

"Where's Nico?" I said.

"He leaves abs doesn't come back until Sunday night," Percy said. "I don't know where to. He just said his father needs him pin the weekends."

"How convenient," I said.

"What—?" he said before I tackled him to the bed.

Our lips met and I licked his, begging for entrance. He let my tongue slip into his mouth.

I pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside.

He seemed to realize what was happening.

"Woah, Wise Girl," he said. "You sure about this?"

"Off course I'm sure, Seaweed Brain," I said.

"I just don't want it to be like I'm pressuring you into anything."

"If anything, _I'm_ pressuring _you_."

"Fair point."

Our lips meet again.

* * *

Forty minutes later, we were lying still naked together on Percy's bed under his blanket. It's a twin size bed so it's a tight fit, but it's worth it.

"So," Percy said. "Did I make your first time memorable?"

I shifted my eyes nervously. "Mm-hmm," I said awkwardly.

"What?" he said. "Was it not good?"

"No," I assured quickly. "It was amazing. It just, uh, wasn't my first time."

"What?" He said whilst sitting up, but keeping his waist under the blanket. "Who else did you sleep with?"

I didn't say anything.

"Annabeth—" said Percy.

"Luke," I blurted out.

"Luke? Who's—?" Comprehension dawned on his face. "The guy who was arrested? The one that was dating Silena?"

I nodded.

"Why? That guy abused and _raped_ her."

"Don't you think I know that?" I said with tears beginning to well up in my eyes.

His expression softened. "You don't mean—?"

I nodded.

"First hand?" he said.

" _Yes_ , Percy." I was full on crying now. Percy wrapped his arms around me and my tears started to stain his shoulder.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so I found some free time where I was unable to work on my project, so here's the chapter. Oh, and next chapter is Nico's P.O.V.**


	15. 15- Nico

My dad told me I had to stay at school for this weekend. Who's my dad? He's just Hades, CEO of Underworld Enterprise. It's just one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world, on par with Toyota and Volkswagen.

So it wouldn't be a surprise when I told you that I'm always driving the newest and most expensive Underworld car, which is currently the 2010 Hellhound which hasn't even been released to the public yet.

Am I happy about it? No, not at all. It always gets me attention, my _least_ favorite thing. To be quite honest, I'd rather be driving a 1986 Underworld Alecto. It's by far more beautiful than all of the new ones any car company is coming out with.

But sadly, he thinks his ambassador should drive nothing but the "best." Yep. I'm a sixteen year old ambassador for a large multi national company on the weekends. I really hate bragging, but I'm pretty good at it too. My dad said that did I not have school he would have made me head of marketing and advertising.

That's not family bias, either. He started me out in the company by seeing how well I ran a lemonade stand at age twelve. He didn't give me a promotion until I got a decent amount of sales there. He gave me a steep goal and wouldn't allow me larger responsibilities until that goal was completed. So he's pretty unbiased.

Do I want to be head of marketing and sales? Hard to say. I quite enjoy my weekends. Driving around and promoting the company is basically what I live for at this point. I don't really have any other aspirations, so when I do graduate I would like the position.

Well enough of my backstory. When I arrived at Underworld HQ, my dad sent me home right away. He wouldn't explain why.

When I got back to my dorm, I was met with a locked door. I unlocked it to see Percy and his girlfriend doing something I did _not_ want to see. I closed and relocked the door immediately. I'm fairly certain they didn't even notice.

"Is your roommate occupied?" said a male voice to my left. I looked over to see a handsome, athletic boy with shaggy blond hair and blue eyes staring at me. He was leaning against the wall and had a smirk on his face. My heart fluttered.

"Hey, Will," I said.

"Want to hang out in my dorm, seeing as you're not allowed in your own?"

"Sure," I said, and surprised myself by giving him a smile.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, I'm sorry. Super short chapter today. :/ At least we've got some Nico backstory and the foundations for Solangelo laid down.**


	16. I'm sorry

I will no longer be continuing this story. I've lost my interest in it. I'm really sorry for those of you who wanted it to continue.

But should anyone wish to take it upon themselves to finish the story themselves, message me about it and we can work something out.


End file.
